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Illustrations and Biographical Sketches 



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THOMPSON & WEST. 



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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1881, by 

THOMPSON & WEST, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C. 



pacific: press publishing house, 

printers, 

stereotypers and binders, 

oakland, cal. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Introduction 9 — 10 

CHAPTEE I. 

Scanty Knowledge of the Pacific Coast Fifty Years Since — Story 
of "Sergas," by Esplandin — Titles to Immense Regions 
Conferred by the Pope — Expeditions for Discovery and 
Settlement — Sir Francis Drake's Operations — Expeditions 
Overland — Marvelous Stories of a Big Canon — Expedition 
of Father Escalante 11—12 

CHAPTEE II. 
BIG CANON OF THE COLORADO. 

Lieutenant Whipple's Expedition — Lieutenant Ives' Expedi- 
tion — First Attempt to Explore the Canon — Land Party 
Organized — One Sight of the Eiver — First Exploration — 
Unwilling Venture — Consider the Situation — Death of One 
of the Parties — Three Months in the Canon — Arrival at 
Fort Colville — Exploration Made Under the Direction of 
the Smithsonian Institute — Indescribable Character of the 
Stream — Loss of Boats and Provisions — Death of a Portion 
. of the Party — Emergence of the Survivors — Geology and 
Climate 12—17 



CHAPTEE III. 

The Exiles of Loreto — Father Tierra's Methods of Conversion — 
Death of Father Tierra — Arrest of the Jesuits — Midnight 
Parting — Permanent Occupation of California — Missions in 
Charge of Francisco Friars — Character of Father Junipero — - 
Exploring Expeditions — Origin of the name of the Bay — 
Mission Dolores — Death of Father Junipero 17 — 20 

C H A P T E E I V. 

THE MISSIONS OF ST. FRANCIS. 

Their Moral and Political Aspect — Domestic Economy — The Es- 
tablishments Described — Secular and Religious Occupations 
of the Neophytes — Wealth and Productions — Liberation and 
Dispersion of the Indians — Final Decay 20 — 23 

CHAPTEE V. 
DOWNFALL OF THE OLD MISSIONS. 

Results of Mexican Rule — Confiscation of the Pious Fund — 

Revolution Begun — Events of the Colonial Rebellion — The 

Americans Appear and Settle Things— Annexation at Last. 

23—24 

CHAPTEE VI. 
PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE. 

Extent of the Mission Lands — Varieties of Product — Agricul- 
tural Implements and means of Working — A Primitive Mill 
— Immense Herds and Value of Cattle — The First Native 
Shop 24—26 

CHAPTEE VII. 

Sir Francis Drake's Discoveries — The Fabulous Straits of 
Anian — Arctic Weather in June — Russian Invasion — 
Native Animals — Various facts and Events 26 — 29 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

THE AMERICAN CONQUEST. 

Fremont and the Bear Flag — -Rise and Progress of the Revolu- 
tion — Commodores Sloat, Stockton, and Shubrick — Castro 
and Flores Driven out— Treaty of Peace — Stockton and 
Kearney Quarrel — Fremont Arrested, etc 29 — 31 

CHAPTEE IX. 

SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY FROM THE TIME CAPT. C. 

M. WEBER FIRST SAW IT IN NOVEMBER, 

1841, UNTIL THE CLOSE OF 1847. 

Captain C. M. Weber — Expedition to California, 1841 — Names 
of the Party — Sutter's Fort — Hoza Ha-soos — San Jose — 
French Camp or Weber Grant — Revolutionary Designs of the 
Foreigners — Treaty between Weber and Ha-soos — How it 
was observed by Ha-soos — Fremont's Expedition, 1844 — 
David Kelsey — Thomas Lindsay — Policy of the Foreigners — 
Weber and Micheltorena at San Jose — John A. Sutter aids 
Micheltorena — A Revolutionary Document — The "Bear 
Flag" — Attempt to Settle the Grant, 1846 — Isbel Brothers 
and Other Early Settlers — Twins, Second Children born in 
County, 1847 — End of Stanislaus City — First Marriage, 1847 
— Village of "Tuleburg" — William Gann, First Child born 
in 1847— Wild Horse Scheme— Resume 31—39 

CHAPTEE X. 
BIOGRAPHIC SKETCH OF GENERAL SUTTER. 

His Nativity — Migration to the American West — Arrival in Cal- 
ifornia — Foundation of Sutter's Fort— Prosperity and 
Wealth of the Colony — Decline and Ultimate Ruin — Retire- 
ment to Hock Farm — Extract from Sutter's Diary. . 39 — 46 

CHAPTEE XL 

THE KING'S ORPHAN. 

His Observations in the Sacramento Valley in 1843 — Indications 
of Gold — Life at Sutter's Fort — Indian Gourmands — Won- 
derful Fertility of the Land 46—47 

CHAPTEE XII. 

SUTTER'S FORT IN 1846. 

Aspect of Sacramento Valley — Sinclair's Ranch — A Lady Pioin 
eer — Captain Sutter at Home — The Fort Described — Condi- 
tion and Occupation of the Indians — Farm Products and 
Prices — Dinner with the Pioneer — New Helvetia . . . .47 — 49 

CHAPTEE XIII. 
THE HISTORY OF THE DONNER PARTY. 

Scene of the Tragedy — Organization and Composition of the 
Party — Election of George Donner as Captain — Hastings' 
Cut-off — Ascent of the Mountains — Arrival at Donner Lake 
— Snow-storms — Construction of Cabins — "Forlorn Hope 
Party " — Captain Reasin P. Tucker's Relief Party — James 
F. Reed's Relief Party— "Starved Camp "—Third Relief 
Party — Heroism and Devotion of Mrs. George Donner — 
Fourth Relief Party — The Survivors 49— 51 



I\ 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Oil A PT EE XIV. 

THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 

Early Reports and Discoveries — Marshall's ( treat Discovery at 
.Sutter's Mill — His Account of the Event — Views of the 
Newspapers of that Time — Political and Social Revolu- 
tion — Great Rush to the Mines — Results — General Sutter's 
Accountof the Gold Discovery -Building of Saw-Mill. 51 — 58 

C II APTER X V. 
EARLY CONDITION OF THIS REGION. 

Mountains Unexplored by the Spaniards — The Trappers — Fre- 
mont's Passage of the Mountains in 1844- — Battles with the 
Snow — The Indian's Warning — A Glimpse of the Valley — 
Subsisting on Horse Flesh — Arrival at Sutter's Fort — Early 
Settlements — An Immigrant Party of 1S44 — Captain Truckee 
— Truckee River — Alone on the Summit — Death of Captain 
Truckee — Immigrants in 1846 — Discovery of G'dd on the 
Yuba ' 58—65 



OHAPTBE XVI. 
AMADOR COUNTY. 

Early History — Origin of the Name of Carson Pass — River and 
Valley — First White Men in the Territory — Sutter's Whip- 
saw-mill — Discovery of Gold — Organization of Calaveras 
County — Removal of County-Seat from Double Springs to 
Jackson — Second Removal to Mokelumne Hill — First Set of 
County Officers — Second Set of County Officers — Members 
of the Legislature — Miscellaneous Matters in Calaveras — Joa- 
quin's Career — Chased by Indians — Mokelumne Hill in Early 
Days — Green and Vogan's Line of Stages — Stories of (iriz- 
zlies — Bull and Bear Fight 65 — 7 1 



CH APT Eli XVII. 
DOMESTIC HABITS OF THE MINERS. 

Exaggerated Accounts of Bret Harte and Joaquin Miller — Cook- 
ing and Washing — Hawks, Squirrels, Quails, and Other 
Game for Food — Getting Supper Under Difficulties — 
Lauudry Affairs — Prevalence of Vermin — The Sanguinary 
Flea — Miners' Flea Trap — Fleas versus Bed-bugs — Rats and 
Other Animals — Visits of Snakes — A Romantic Affair 
Spoiled by a Skunk 72 — 76 

CHAPTBE XVIII. 
ORGANIZATION OF AMADOR COUNTY. 

Election for or Against Division, June 17, 1854 — Proceedings 
of the Board of Commissioners — Strife for the Possession of 
the County Seat — The Owl — Sketches of the First Candi- 
dates — Courts Established — Efforts to Suppress Disorderly 
Houses — Amusing Procession — Election in 1854 — Condition 
of Society 76— S3 

CHAPTER XIX. 

RANCHERIA MURDERS. 

Ill-feeling between the Americans and Mexicans — Frequency of 
Murders — The Band First Seen at Hacalitas — Up Dry Creel; 
— At Rancheria — To Drytown — A Second Time to Rancheria 
— Slaughter — Departure of the Robbers — Excitement the 
Next Day — Immense Gathering — Trial and Hanging of the 
Mexicans — Death of Roberts— Borquitas — Presence of County 
Officers — Pursuit of the Murderers — Hunt Around Bear 
Mountain — The Murderers Overtaken — Death of Phoenix — 
Expulsion and Disarming of Mexican Population — Outrages 
at Drytown — Burning of the Church — Mass Meeting at 
Jackson — Review After a Lapse of a Quarter of a Century. 
83— S8 

CHAPTER XX. 

POLITICAL PARTIES IN 1855. 

Success of the American Party — List of Officers Elected — 
Rivalry Between Towns — Financial Matters — Efforts to 
Suppress Gambling— Political Parties in 1856 — Names of 
Officers Elected — Calaveras Indebtedness — Tax Levy in 1857 
— Disbursements for 1857 — Table of Receipts for all Moneys 
up to 1857 — Political Parties in 1 857— Officers Elected in 



1857— Officers Elected 1858— T;.\ Levy 1858— Condition ol 
Treasury — Financial Matters in 1859 — Condition of Polit- 
ical Parties 88 — 92 

CHAPTER XXI. 

AMADOR COUNTY AT THE BEGINNING OF 1860. 

(bounty Officers — Financial Situation — Political Parties — First 
Appearance of 1!. Burnell — First Appearance of Tom Fitch 
— Officers Elected in I860 — Amador Wagon Road Voted 
On — Names of Amador Mountaineers — Financial Affairs in 
1861 — Calaveras Indebtedness Denied — Enormous Profits 
of Officers — Political Parties in 1861 — The Amador Wagon 
Project Renewed — Vote on the Project, May 10, 186:2 — 
Rates of Toll — Impeachment of James H. Hardy — Political 
Parties in 1862 — Great Fire in Jackson— Petition of M. W. 
Gordon — Supervisors Order the Building of a Court House 
— Political Parties in 1 863 — French Bar Affair — Officers 
Elected in 1863 — General Vote — Political Parties in 1864 — 
Vote of 1864 — Financial Matters — Political Parties in 1865 
— Arrest of Hall and Penry — Election Returns by Precincts, 
1865 — Seaton's Defection — Counting the Votes — Clinton 
Vote— List of Officers Elected in 1865— Death of G. W. 
Seaton, and Election of A. H. Rose, his Successor — Finan- 
cial Matters in 1865 92—107 



CHAPTER XXII. 

END OF THE SECOND DECADE. 

Politics in 1 866 — Financial Matters — Rabolt Declared Ineligible 
to the Office of Treasurer, and Otto Walther Appointed — 
Political Parties in 1867 — New Registry Law — Election 
Returns Showing the New Precincts — Judiciary Election — 
Financial Matters — Financial Matters in 1868 — Contest for 
Supervisor in the First District — Ingalls Declared Unseated 
— Carroll Installed — Act of the Legislature in Reference 
Thereto — Wealth and Population — Political Parties in 1868, 
— Election Returns by Precincts — Politics in 1869 — Election 
Returns by Precincts 107 — 1 1 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

CONDITION OF THE COUNTY AT THE BEGINNING 
OF THE THIRD DECADE-- 1870. 

Condition of the County at the Beginning of the Third Decade — 
Statistics of the Wealth and Indebtedness — Politics in 1870 
— Financial Condition — Redemption Fund — Condition of 
Other Counties — The Miners' League — Death of McMenemy 
and Hatch — Political Parties in 1872 — Election Returns by 
Precincts, 1871 — Persons Elected in 1871 — Financial Mat- 
ters 1872 — Political Parties in 1872— Election Returns for 
1872 — Comparison of Vote with Previous Years — Financial 
Matters, 1873 — Political Parties in 1873 — John Eagon's Posi- 
tion — Judge Gordon's Stand — J. T. Farley's Position — Elec- 
tion Returns by Precincts — Officers Elected in 1873 — Alpine 
county Left out in the Election — Financial Matters in 1S74 
— The Funding Project — Political Parties in 1874 — Financial 
Matters in 1875— Robbery of the Treasury May 9, 1875— 
Conclusion of Butterfield Matter in 1S77 — Political Matters 
in 1875— Officers elected in 1S75 110—1 19 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
FINANCIAL MATTERS IN 1876. 

Political Parties in 1876 — Election Returns by Precincts — Finan- 
ces in 1S77 —Political Parties in 1877 — Returns by Precincts 
— Death of the Honorable Robert Ludgate — Financial Mat- 
ters in 187S — Political Parties in 1S78 — Vote on the Adop- 
tion of the New Constitution — Financial Matters in 1879 — 
Political Matters in 1879— Officers Elected— Effect of the 
New Constitution on the Judicial System — Financial Mat- 
ters in 1860 — Political Parties in 1S80 — Amador County 
Election Returns Nov. 2, 1880— Review from 1870 to 1880. 
119—124 



CHAPTER XXV. 
GEOLOGY OF AMADOR COUNTY. 

Strata in Buena Vista Mountain — Carboniferous Clays — Granitic 
Sandstone — Glacial Epoch — Supposed Section of the Mount- 
ains — Former Course of the Rivers — Account of the Blue 
Lead — Stratified Rocks — Serpentine Range — Chromate of 
Iron 125—136 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAP TEE XXVI. 

GEOLOGY OF AMADOR COUNTY. 

BY GEORGE MADEIRA. 

Extensive Character of the Subject — Mother Lode — Methods 
of Vein Deposits — Character of the Veins East of the 
Mother Lode — Minerals in the Tertiary Rocks — Nature of 
the Limestones — Gravel Deposits — Nature of the Supposed 
Photographic Rock — Evidences of Glaciers — Moving Large 
Rocks — Volcanoes — Origin of the Trap Rock — Origin of the 
Smaller Quartz Veins — Butte Mountain — Copper — Iron 
— Gypsum — Asbestos — Marble — Kaolin — Manganese— Agate 
— Chalcedony — Skeletons of the Megatherium — Other' Fos- 
sils — Rhinoceros — Hippopotamus — Horse Destruction of the 
Arcadian Land — Botany 136 — 141 

CHAPTEE XX VII. 

ORIGIN OF MINERAL VEINS. 

Plutonic Theory — Ocean Floors — Other Theories Considered — 
Function of Wall Rock and Gouge — Surface Veins — 
Probable Depth of Veins — Methods of Deposit — Jurassic 
Gravel — Course of the Blue Lead 141^145 

CHAPTEE XXVI II. 
QUARTZ MINING. 

Quartz. Mining, Commencement of — Quartz Miners' Convention — 
Account of the Mother Lode — Sketch of Different Mines — 
Gwin Mines — Oasco — Murphy's Ridge — Huffaker — Moore — 
Zeile — Description of a Model Mill — Platner Process of 
Reducing Sulphurets — Hinkley Mine — Monterichard — 
Kennedy — Tubbs — Oneida — Summit — -Hay ward — Character 
of the Same — Railroad — Wildman — Mahoney — Union or 
Lincoln — Accident in the Lincoln — Mechanics — Herbertville 
— Spring Hill — Keystone — Consolidation of Granite State 
and Walnut Hill — Discovery of the Bonanza — Statistics of 
Same — Big Grab, and Failure to Jlold it — Account of the 
Suit — Original Amador — Bunker Hill — Pennsylvania Cover 
— Black Hills — Seaton — Potosi — Quartz Mountain — Ply- 
mouth Group — Enterprise — Nashville 145 — 161 

CHAPTEE XXIX. 

QUARTZ MINING EAST OF THE MOTHER LODE. 

Downs Mine — Marklee — Tellurium — Thayer — Clinton Mines — 
Mace Range of Mines — Pioneer and Golden Gate Mines — 
Quartz Veins West of the Mother Lode — Kirkendall — Soap- 
Stone or Steatite Mine — Quartz Mining in the Future — 
Put Money in Thy Purse — School Cabinets — Copper Min- 
ing — General Craze — Country Formed into Districts — Funny 
Notices — New Towns — Result of the General Search — 
Chrome Iron — Failure of Meader — Remarkable Discovery — 
Present Condition of Copper Mining — Newton Mine. 161-167 

CHAPTEE XXX. 

JACKSON. 

Capture of the County Seat — Killing of Colonel Collyer — Loss of 
the County Seat — Bull Fight and Election — Mines — First 
School — Improvements in 1854 — Hanging Tree — Griswold 
Murder— Great Freshet 1861— Great Fire 1862— Flood and 
Loss of Life 1 878 — Big Frolic — Celebration of Admission Day 
— Mokelumne River — Murphy's Gulch — Hunt's Gulch — 
Tunnel Hill — Butte Basin — Butte Mountain — Butte City — 
Marriage in High Life— The Gate— Ohio Hill— Slab City- 
Clinton — Spaulding's Invention 167 — IS] 

CHAPTEE XXXI. 
IONE VALLEY AND VICINITY. 

First White Men in lone Valley — First House — First Ranches — 
. Judge Lynch — Starkey's Case — First Mill — Fun with Griz- 
zlies — Origin of Name lone — First School — First Flour Mill 
— First Brick Store — Methodist Church — Centennial — Pres- 
ident's Address — Extracts from Poem — Extracts from Ora- 
tion — lone in 1876 — Railroad — Stockton Narrow-Guage — 
Gait Road — Overflows — Fires — Buena Vista — First Settle- 
ment — Mining — Arroyo Seco Grant — Dispossession of Settlers 
—Present Appearance — Buckeye Valley — Irish Hill — Quincy 
— Muletown— Miners' Court — The Funny Man — Faithful 
Wife 182—194 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

LANCHA PLANA AND VICINITY. 

Its Early Settlers — Cholera and Diarrhea — Judge Palmer's 
Bridge — Fires — First School — Notable Homicide — Bluff 
Mining — Open Sea — Chaparral Hill — Growth of the Town 
— Bonita Affair — Indian War — Butler Claim — Decline of 
the Town — Put's Bar and the Fruit Interest — Overflows — 
Townerville — Camp Opera — French Camp — Copper Centre. 
194—202 



CHAPTER XXXII 1. 

VOLCANO AND VICINITY. 

,\s it Looked in '49 — Georgia Claim — Sharp Mining Broker — 
Rod. Stowell — Agriculture — Society — A Philosopher — 
Hydraulic Mining — Nature of the Gravel Deposits — China 
Gulch — Volcano Tunnel — Former Project of Lowering the 
Outlet — Fires — Largest Fire — Fire of 1865 — Year of Fires — 
Burning of Hanford's Store — Miners' Joke — Nocturnal 
Visitor — Murder of Beckman — Lynch Law — Stage Robber- 
ies — Miners' Library Association — Dramatic Societies — 
Russel's Hill — Fort John — Upper Rancheria — Aqueduct 
City — Contreras — Ashland — Grizzly Hill — Wheeler Dig- 
gings — Plattsburg — How Named — Hunt's Gulch — Spanish 
Gulch — Whisky Slide— Large Crystal Caves 202—218 



CHAPTEE XXXIV. 

NORTH-WESTERN PART OF THE COUNTY. 

Sutter Creek — First Foundry — Knight's Foundry and Machine 
Shop — Planing Mill — Society at Sutter Creek — Schools and 
Sohool-Houses — Shipment of Gold — Fires — Incorporation — 
Future Prospects — ■ Amador — Ministers — Placer Mines — 
Gold of Lower Rancheria — Oleta — Execution by Lynch Law 
— Killing of Carter by Doctor Unkles — Home Rule — Fatal 
Explosion — Bad Case of Erysipelas — Lynch Law Vetoed — 
The Famous Safe Robbery — First School — Churches — Pres- 
ent Mining Prospects — Sewell's Addition — Cosumues River 
—Amusing account of Mining Machinery — Famous Lynch- 
ing Affair at Jamison's Ranch 218 — 229 



CHAPTEE XXXV. 

NORTH-WESTERN PART OF THE COUNTY. 

Drytown — Details of Settlement — First Justice of the Peace — 
Arrival of Families — Scurvy — Great Fire — Farming — Dry 
Creek — Rattlesnake Gulch — Mile Gulch — Murderers' 
Gulch — Forest Home — Arkansas Creek — Yankee Hill — Big- 
Nugget — Willow Springs — Central House — Plymouth — 
Puckerville — Mineral Springs — Fires — Enterprise — Yeomet. 
229—234 

CHAPTEE XXXVI. 

EASTERN PART OF AMADOR COUNTY. 

Elevation Above Tide-water — lone, Jackson, Volcano — Pine 
Grove — Dentzler's Flume House — Claiborne Foster's — Ante- 
lope Spring's — Hipkins & Wiley's Station— Ham's Station- 
Mud Springs — Stevens' Lumber Yard — Emigrant's Pass — 
Amount of Timber Remaining — Climatic Effect of the Loss 
of Timber — Summer Pasture — As a Summer Resort — Prac- 
tical Jokes — Salt Springs — Mammoth Quartz Vein — Trout 
Fishing — Silver Mines — Sunset from the Sierras — Climate — 
Drouths — Freshets — Rain Table for Amador County, as Com- 
piled by Frank Howard — Rain Table for Sacramento, cor- 
rected for Sutter Creek 234 — 242 

CHAPTEE XXXVII. 

ARROYO SECO GRANT. 

Claim Rejected — Claim Confirmed on Appeal — Character of 
Grant — Matters of Record — Letter from T. A. Hendricks, 
Attorney General — Final Survey — During Hancock Agency- 
Proposed Settlement — Sale to J. Mora Moss & Co.-— Memo- 
rial to President Lincoln — Dispossession — Settlers' League — 
Shooting of Herman Wohler — Last Effort — Memorial to 
Congress 242 — 250 



VI 



TABLE OF CONTENTS— BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

FARNHAM'S HISTORY OF ALVARADO. 
Farnham's History of Alvarado.' 250 — 255 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 

THE ABORIGINES. 

Origin — Probable Antiquity — Indian Relics — Personal Character 
of California Indians — Division of Tribes — Indian Huts — 
Food — Indian Mills — Indian Cooking — Meal Time — Cloth- 
ing — Legal Tender — Grizzlies — Arms — Principles of Gov- 
ernment — Family Relations — Marriage — Small Hands and 
Feet — Religion — Funerals — Military Reviews — Numbers 
Assembled — Military Evolutions — Games — Sweat House — 
Fandango at Yeomet 1851— Diseases and Treatment— Scourge 
of 1832-33— Anecdotes of the Indians 255—261 

CHAPTER XL. 

CANALS. 

Kilhain Ditches — Ham Ditch — Amador and Sutter Ditch — Wil- 
low Spring Ditch — Floating Lumber— Novel Passenger Boat 
— Empire Ditch — Amador Ditch — Buena Vista Ditch — 
Lancha Plana Ditch — The Nigger Ditch — Poverty Bar Ditch 
— Volcano Ditch — Cosumnes Water Company — The Amador 
Canal 261—267 

CHAPTER XLI. 
PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

First School in the State — School System — First School Report 
— First County Superintendent — School-book War — School 
Census in 1863 by Districts — School Statistics — Condition 
of Schools in 1871— Tribute to School-teachers 267—273 



CHAPTER XLII. 

NEWSPAPERS. 

Charles Boynton — Amador Ledger — Dispatch — Union Record — 
Sutter Creek Independent — lone News — Amador Sentinel. 
273—274 

CHAPTER X L I 1 1. 

SOCIETIES. 

The Society of Free Masons — Modern Masonry — General Ten- 
dency of Masonry — Introduction into the United States- 
Volcano Lodge No. 56 — Amador Lodge No. 65 — lone Lodge 
No. 80— Henry Clay Lodge No. 90 — St. Marks Lodge No. 15 
— Drytown Lodge No. 174 — Royal Arch Chapter No. 11 — 
Origin of Odd Fellowship — Encampment — Degree of Re- 
bekah — Volcano Lodge No 25 — Sutter Creek Lodge No. 31 — 
Jackson Lodge No. 36 — lone Lodge No. 51 — Telegraph Lodge 
No. 79 — Lancha Plana Lodge No. 95 — Plymouth Lodge No. 
260 — Grand Encampment No. 17 — Marble Encampment No. 
19 — Temperance Societies — Subjects for Insane Asylums — 
Good Templars — Knights of the Red Cross — Blue Ribbon 
Society — General Tendency of Temperance Societies — Bur- 
lesque Societies — E-Clampsus Vitus — Hautontimoroumenos 
— Knights of the Assyrian Cross — Pioneer Societies — Am- 
ador Society of California Pioneers — Sclavonic Illyric 
Mutual Benevolent Society — Grangers 274 — 283 

CHAPTER XL1V. 
SKETCHES OF AMADOR COUNTY BAR. 

Sketches of Amador County Bar 283—295 

Officers of Amador County 296 — 297 

Patrons Directory 340 — 344 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



Page. 
Allen, George 299 

Baird, Jefferson . . . 299 

Bamert, Charles _ 299 

Bishop, Edgar. 300 

Beyther, J. C ...300 

Brown, John A 300 

Caminetti, Anthony . . . 300 

Caiiile, William Washington . _ 301 

dimming, James. . _ . . .301 

Clark, William O 302 

Davis, Thompson . ........ 303 

Downs, E.C -. .. .303 

Easton, Thomas W. . 303 

Emmons, S.W . . . ... ...304 

Fagan, Peter . .3O4 

Farnham, H. C. . _ _304 

Finn, Stephen 305 

Fontenrose 305 

Foster, Margaret ... 305 

Grambart, John H 306 

Green, Charles _ .306 

Gregory, Inglefeld B 306 

Ham. A. C. .306 

Herman, Franklin . . .307 

Hinkson, E. S. and J. M 307 



Hoffman, Frank. ... - -307 

Holman, James H 307 

Hosley, John 308 

Hutchins, John W 308 

Jones, W. C ---308 

Kerr, Thomas 309 

Kidd, Stephen P 309 

Leach, Merwin .... 309 

Lepley, Isaac 309 

Lessley, James — 311 

Little, M. J. . -.311 

Lndgate, Eobert ... 312 

Martin, O. E 312 

McLaine, L ....... .313 

Meehan, James. . _ 313 

Meek, Hiram C 313 

Moore, George 314 

Murray, Matthew 314 

Northup, John 314 

Palmer, E. W 315 

Parks, James F . . .315 

Peck, Palmer N ..315 

Petty, A... 315 

Pettitt, J. E 316 

Prouty, Hon. W. H 316 



Page. 

Eichtmyer, B. F .317 

Ringer, J. H. . . . ... 318 

Eobertson, James. 318 

Eoss, Benjamin 318 

Sallee, Jonathan . _ 318 

Sanborn, Arthur B . .319 

Sanderson, John 319 

Schacht, Bruno H._ ....319 

Sheakley, Alexander .319 

Shealor, James W 320 

SpagnolLD. B 320 

Spagnoli, Sylvester G 320 

Stewart, Eobert. .. .320 

Stolcken, J. D 321 

Van Sandt, A. A .321 

Violett, James W 321 

Vogan, John 322 

Webb, Eichard 322 

Weller, Conrad 322 

Wells, Matthew H .323 

Whitacre, Isaac W 323 

Wheeler, Stephen C 323 

Whitmore, F. M 323 

Williams, Nason C 324 

Woolf'ord, Joseph 324 

Younglove, Dwight 324 



TABLE OF CONTENTS— ILLUSTRATIONS, PORTRAITS. 



vu 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Allen, George Facing Page 


104 


Allen, George " 


105 


Baird, Jefferson,. " " 


168 


Bamert, Charles . " " 


216 


Berminghani, P 


220 


Bishop, Edgar. •' 


80 


Blyther, J. C . " 


272 


Bunker Hill Mine 


116 


Caminetti, A 


96 


Carlile, Wm. Washington, " 


60 


Central House Banch. . 


280 


County Hospital 


12 


Court House . 


9 
32 


Cumming, James 


Davis & Leach " " 


208 


Dosch, Charles 


272 


Downs, B. C _'-_•.. 


108 


Downs Mining Company, " 


64 


Easton, Thomas W 


208 


Emmons, S. W 


84 


Eureka.. ... 


68 


Evans & Askey 


24 


Fagan, Peter " 


164 


Farley, James T 


112 


Farnham, H. C 


240 


Forest House 


208 


Forest Livery Stable.. 


208 


Foster, Mrs. Margaret . . 


216 


Frates, Frank " 


40 


Froelich, Bosa " 


224 



Green, Charles ..... Facing Page 72 

Gregory, Inglefield B. " ". 176 

Grambart, J. H " '"' 280 

Ham, A. C •• " 236 

Ham Station " " 236 

Herman, Fr " " 220 

Hinkson, B. S. & Bro.. " " 88 

Historical Tree Frontispiece 

Hoffman, Frank. . .. Facing Page 44 

Holman, J. H ...... . ' " " 212 

Hosley, John " " 56 

Hutchins, J. W ■... " " 32 

Jones, W.C " " 68 

Kidd, Mrs. Mary M " " 176 

Knox, Israel W " " 116 

Lepley, Isaac. ..." " 310 

Little. M.J •' ■• 108 

Ludgate, Mrs. Mary H. " " 56 

Mahoney Mining Company' - " 156 

Martin, O. E " •' 84 

Mehan, James " - 92 

Moline Mill... - " 32 

Moore, Judge George.. - " 112 

Mountain Spring House, '■ " 

Murray, Matthew . " ■' 192 

National Hotel " " 24 

Northup, John . . . ... " " 152 

Palmer, R. W " " 224 

Penry.W. M " ■• 56 

Pettitt, J. E " " 200 



Petty, A Facing Page 88 


Potter, E. S . " 


" 168 


Prouty, William H 


80 


Ringer, Jonathan H. . . 


" 184 


Robertson, James 


" 192 


Sallee, Jonathan 


■' 280 


Sanderson, John ...".. . 


56 


Shealor, James 


•• 100 


Sheakley, Alexander 


'■ 160 


Spagnoli, D. B. . . . 


96 


Spagnoli, S. G ... 


32 


Stewart, S. D. R " 


"• 156 


Stewart, S. D. R 


" 181 


St. George Hotel " 


88 


Stolcken, J.D " 


" 200 


Union Livery Stable. . 


44 


Van Sandt, A. A . . " 


" 152 


Violett, J. W " 


92 


Vogan, John 


" 120 


Volcano Livery Stable. 


88 


Weller C " 


76 


Wells, M. H... 


- 280 


Wheeler, S. C '• 


: - 212 


Whitacre, Isaac W. . 


- 188 


Whitmore, F. M... ... 


•• 100 


Williams, Nason C 


" 240 


Woolf'ord, Joseph 


" 188 


Younglove Dwight 


36 



Allen, George Facing Page 300 

Allen, Mrs. George " " 300 

Brown, John A " " 128 

Caminetti, A " " 248 

Clarke, W. O " " 302 

Dudley, A. K " " 232 

Fagan, Edward Millington," " 164 

Fagan, Evaline " " 164 

Fagan, Emmaline " " 164 

Finn, Stephen... " " 304 

Fontenrose, L. J " " 52 

Green, Charles "' " 72 

Green, Mrs. Charles " " 72 



PORTRAITS. 

Kerr, Thomas . Facing Page 312 

Lepley, Isaac . " " 308 

Lessley, James " " 264 

McLaine,L __.,.. " " 20 

McLaine, Mrs. L ' . " " 20 

Meehan, James . . . " " 288 

Meek, Hiram C " " 28 

Moore, George " " 16 

Parks, J. F.._. .... " " 324 

Peck, P.N •' " 256 

Penry, W.M " " 136 

Petty, A " '" 296 

Richtmyer, B. F '" " 317 



Boss, Benj . . . Facing Page 320 

Sanborn, Arthur B ... . " " 144 

Schacht, Bruno H '• " 48 

Stewart, Robert . " " 204 

Stewart, Mrs. C. A '• " 204 

Vogan, John. " " 124 

Webb, Richard... . " " 140 

Weller, C ... - " 76 

Weller, Mrs. C " " 76 

Weller, George C... ' " 76 

Woolford, Joseph " " 132 



» 




■ . ' , 






■ =■■■'- \ 




ft 
% 



:r. 



HISTORY 



-OF- 



AMADOR COUNTY. CALIFORNIA 



BY J. D. MASON. 



INTRODUCTION. 

Cicero says that, " it is the first law of history 
that the writer should neither dare to advance what 
is false nor suppress what is true; that he should 
relate the facts with strict impartiality, free from ill- 
will or favor; that his narrative should distinguish 
the order of time, and, when necessary, the descrip- 
tion of places; that he should unfold the motives of 
men, and. in his account of the transactions, or the 
events, interpose his own judgment; should relate 
what was done, how it was done, and what share 
rashness, prudence, or judgment had in the issue; 
that he should give the character of the leading men, 
their weight and influence, their passions, principles, 
and conduct through life." 

A good history is a growth; the first attempts to 
collate the facts bearing on the settlement and develop- 
ment of a country are necessarily imperfect. Many 
things will creep in which were better left out, and 
others of importance are omitted. Some matters 
will receive undue importance, and few will be accu- 
rately related. Not until edition after edition has 
been brought before the public will the prominent 
events receive due notice, or the doubtful ones have 
justice done them. A thousand eyes will be sharp- 
ened to criticise the narrative. A thousand new 
witnesses will arise to contradict, affirm, or correct. 
The publishers hope that the public will make due 
allowance for errors unavoidable in the first attempt 
to collect the facts pertaining to the early history of 
the county. In many instances the testimony, even 
of eye-witnesses, is very conflicting. This is true of 
the affairs of August, 1855. Hardly any two agree 
in their narratives of the circumstances. In this, as 
in other matters, the most probable statements are 
recorded. Nothing has been set down in malice, and 
some things have been left out as being too much 
like tales told out of school; as far as possible con- 
signing them to oblivion. 

Having resided over a quarter of a century in the 
county, and acted a part, though a humble one, in 



many of the circumstances narrated, the writer has 
drawn largely on his own memory for many of the 
incidents. 

The chapters on geology and mining, will, it is 
hoped, furnish interesting and profitable reading to 
all, especially those engaged in mining. The facts 
and theories are the result of years of observation, 
and many miles of travel, and are not retailed at 
second hand from Whitney or other scientists. The 
observations on mining have been compiled from 
the statements, opinions and experiences, of hun- 
dreds of intelligent miners. Thanks are due to all 
the superintendents, especially to those of the Ama- 
dor Consolidated, the Keystone, the Oneida, the 
Empire, the Downs and the Zeile mines for valuable 
information on gold mining, and to Edward Johnson 
of the Newton mine, for statistics and methods of 
copper mining. 

The habits of the early miners will be read with 
interest. The writer hopes that some of the false 
impressions, produced by Bret Hart, Joaquin Miller, 
and other writers, regarding early Californians, will 
be dissipated by a true description thereof. The stories 
of the " Yuba Dam," " Tuolumne Debating Society" 
and others of that kind, have truth enough for a 
hint to a lively imagination and no more; and those 
who, in after years, judge California by those things, 
will be wide of the mark. The writer, having been 
a resident of the State since 1850, has an interest 
in the good reputation of the pioneers, and is glad 
to enter his protest to such absurdities being re- 
corded as history. With him, the work has been 
one of love, and a design to do justice to our coun- 
trymen, with no desire to hold them up to derision. 

The publishers intended to give statistics of the 
growth of the mining and agricultural industries, 
but found the published returns entirely worthless. 
In some instances, the estimations were utterly ab- 
surd. In 1877, the yield of wheat in Amador county 
was estimated at 236 bushels to the acre, this esti- 



10 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



ma to being copied without remark into all the works 
on statistics. In 186G, the number of grape-vines 
was estimated at 557,773 ; in 1867, at 1,140,000; 1868, 
at 683,623. The estimates in many instances were 
mere guess work. The values of real and personal 
property as a basis for taxation, are the only esti- 
mates that approximate the truth. These have 
been given from year to year, in the continuous 
history of tho county. 

The history of the Arroyo Seco Grant has been ex- 
haustively treated. The facts in regard to this, the 
most important event in the history of the county, 
were fast sinking into obscurity, and it was 
deemed best to collect and preserve them, that our 
children might know the gi'cat wrong that was 
perpetrated under cover of the law. Valuable 
assistance in this was rendered by J. A. Forbes (now 
deceased), who was familiar with the whole history 
of the grant system. 

The chapter on the Colorado Canon will be found 
interesting, and worthy of being preserved with the 
other facts bearing on the discovery and settlement 
of California. 

The article on the Dead Rivers of California, cop- 
ied from the Overland Monthly, is well worth preser- 
vation in connection with the geology of the county, 
and will be Avelcomed by all who are interested in 
the ancient river system. 

In making up this work, many authorities have 
been consulted; Foi'bes' History of California, writ- 
ten in 1835; Farnham's History of the Period of 
the Arroyo Seco Grant; Annals of San Francisco 
and California, by Frank Soule; Tuthill's His- 
tory of California; History of the Pacific School 
System, by John Swett; Cronise's Natural Wealth 
of California; Hittel's Resources of California; Bay- 
ard Taylor's Fl Dorado; Scenes in El Dorado in 
1849-50, by S. C. Upham; Raymond's work on 
the Mines of the Pacific Coast, and others too numer- 
ous to mention. The Odd Fellows' libraries of Oak- 
land and San Francisco, the school libraiy of 
Alameda county, and mercantile library of San 
Francisco, as well as private collections, have 
been frequently visited. The files of the Alta Cal- 
ifornia; Spirit of the Times (M. D. Boruck's paper), 
and other city papers have often been consulted, as 
well as files of the county papers, the Ledger, Sentinel, 
News and Dispatch. To the proprietor of the Dis- 
patch especially, are many thanks due. The county 
papers published previous to August 23, 1862, were 
mostly destroyed in the great fire. The loss is irrep- 
arable, though it is said the hermit at the Gate, J. G. 
Farrar, has complete files of all the papers ever pub- 
lished in the county, but the author was unable to 
get access to them. 

To point out all the sources of information, or to 
name all the persons giving us valuable assistance 
would bo impossible. It had to be gathered from 
a thousand sources, and thousands of notes com- 
pared. Valuable assistance was rendered by Hon. 



II. A. Carter in matters of the Arroyo Seco Grant, 
Robert Reed, James Bagley, D. Stewart, H. F. Hall, 
Hon. R. B. Swift, Hon. L. Brusie, J. M. F. Johnson, 
Mrs. J. T. Henley, J. W. Surface, W. II. Fox, J. P, 
Martin, P. Scully, William Cook, John Filzsimmons, 
Hon. I. B. Gregory, A. Thompson, Hon. J. W. D. 
Palmer, Isaac Waddell, Hon. William Waddell, Will- 
iam Maroon, J. C. Fithian, R. W. Palmer, George W. 
Porter, James M. Porter, Thomas Love, Louis Tol- 
lier, Ellis Evans, A. Askey, Mrs. Ellis Evans, J. D. 
Davis, James Meehan, George Durham, Hon. M. W. 
Gordon, Hon. John A. Eagon, Hon. A. C. Brown, J. 
C. Shipman, Thomas Jones, William Lowry, John 
Vogan, II. Goldncr, J. A. Butterfield, C. J. Nickerson, 
C. A. Purinton, P. N. Peck, Wilmer Palmer, William 
Pitt, E. R. Yates, J. E. Reaves, R. Robinson, J. T. 
Wheeler, A. P. Clough, Jacob Cook, J. C. Ham, Ed- 
mund Wise, S. Loree, James Henry, L. Ludikens, L. 
McLaine, D. S. Boydston, A. Petty, F. M. Whitmore, 
F. Mace, James Hall, J. A. Foster, W. Q. Mason, A. 
Jerome, S. Petty, R. Fry, Isaac E. Eastman (who was 
here in 1848), James Hall, E. Genochio, L. J. Fonten- 
rose, County Clerk, C. H. Turner, A. Cammetti, Dis- 
trict Attorney, B. Ross, Hon. J. T. Farley, Thomas 
Frakes,C. Gossum, T. B. Greenhalgh, J. F. Gould, C.J. 
Garland, C. B. Goodrich, W. H. Harmon, W. E. Huey, 
Henry Kutchenthall, James Livermore, S. S. Man- 
non, James McCauley, I. G. Nute, I. N. Randolph, 
W. T. Wildman, William Jennings, J. C. Williams, 
Frank Henderson, S. B. Boardman, H. H. Towns, 
Superintendent of Amador Canal, James Morgan, 
J. O. Bartlett, R. T. Bisbee, Wm. O. Clark, M. B. 
Church, T. A. Chicizola, A. K. Dudley, Jacob Em- 
minger, Dan. Worley, John Marchant, Wm. Moon, 
T. J. Phelps, A. S. Putnam, B. S. Sanborn, E. A. 
Smith, W. South erland, Silas Tubbs, J. Northup, Leroy 
Worden,Hon. Chapman Warkins, and many others. 

Many old residents have been interviewed in San 
Francisco and Oakland, and valuable information 
gained: John Hanson first Sheriff of Calaveras, John 
Burke, Dr. Henry M. Fisk, Dr. W. Ayer, J. W. 
Paugh, J. G. Severance, J. A. Robinson, N. W. Spaul- 
ding, Dr. Louis Soher, Hon. E. D. Sawj^er, A. J. 
Houghtaling, W. C. Pratt, (the last three being mem- 
bers of the Legislature at the time of the Act pro- 
viding for the organization of the county), Hon. W. W. 
Cope, Hon. Wm. Higby, Hon. Wm. B. Ludlow, B. S. 
E. Williams, Hon. J. W. Bieknell, Alvinza Hayward, 
A. W. Richardson, Hon. J. D. Stevenson (commander 
of the famous Stevenson regiment), J. Alexander 
Forbes, James Foley, who established Post-offices in 
Amador, and others names not recalled. 

The author may be permitted to say in conclusion 
that the labor has been a source of constant pleasure; 
that the memories of the many reunions with the 
pioneers will remain pleasant as long as life lasts. 
He hopes the patrons of the work will manifest tho 
same good spirit in reading the work, passing lightly 
over the unavoidable imperfections, and remember- 
ing only that which is good. 



EARLY HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



11 



CHAPTER 1. 

Scanty Knowledge of the Pacific Coast Fifty Years Since — Story 
of "Sergas," by Esplandin — Titles to Immense .Regions 
Conferred by the Pope — Expeditions for Discovery and 
Settlement — Sir Francis Drake's Operations — Expeditions 
Overland — Marvelous Stories of a Big Canon — Expedition 
of Father Escalante. 

Those who studied geography forty or fifty years 
since, recollect how little was known of the "Great 
West." "Lewis and Clarke's Expedition to the 
Rocky Mountains and Oregon," contained about all 
that was known of the Pacific coast; and hundreds 
of persons now living, remember that that portion 
of the map now marked California and Arizona, 
was occupied with a table of distances from Wash- 
ington to our larger cities. The Rocky Mountains 
were represented as a single range, running from 
the Isthmus of Darien to the North Pole. More 
facts concerning the Pacific slope were learned in 
the first fifty years after the discovery of the New 
World, than in the following two hundred. The 
deserts of Arizona and the " Great Cafion," shut 
off exploration and settlement from this direction, 
though rumors of a country rich in gold, had circu- 
lation among the hordes that overrun Mexico soon 
after its conquest by Cortez and his followers. On 
such rumOrs, was founded the story of " Sergas" by 
Esplandin, the son of Amadis of Gaul, which con- 
tained " the story of a country called California, 
very near to the terrestrial paradise, which was 
peopled by black women without any men among 
them, because they were accustomed to live after 
the manner of the Amazons. They were of strong 
and hardened bodies, of ardent courage, and great 
force. The island was the strongest in the world, 
from its steep and rocky cliffs. Their arms were all 
of gold, and so were the caparisons of the wild 
horses they rode." 

At that time, the world was filled with rumors of 
wonderful discoveries, by land and by sea. Some, 
like De Soto, set off in quest of the " spring of eter- 
nal youth," which it was confidently asserted was 
just on the other side of a certain range of mount- 
ains. It was easier to believe in a land of gold, 
than in a spring of eternal youth. This exciting 
book, written to satisfy the literary market of that 
age, was universally read in Spain; and, it is highly 
probable, was partly the cause for the expedition 
which afterwards, under the charge of Hernando 
Grijalva, actually discovered " California very near 
to the Terrestrial Paradise;" so that it is probable 
that a dreamy old romancer in Seville, Spain, sug- 
gested the name of the country that was to upheave 
new continents in the commercial world. 

IMMENSE REGIONS GRANTED BY THE POPE. 

Cortez had achieved the conquest of Mexico with 
but a handful of men, in 1519; and nine years after 
returned to Spain, laden with the spoils of an empire 
larger and richer, and, perhaps, more civilized than 



Spain herself; also with accounts of countries still 
richer and larger, to the north-west of Mexico. He 
was received with distinguished honors by Charles 
V., and rewarded by many royal concessions, among 
which Avere the right to one-twelfth of all the 
precious metals he could find, and a perpetual vice- 
royalty for himself and heirs, over all the countries 
he should discover. It must be remembered that 
the Pope, in consideration of the dissemination of 
the " True Faith," had granted to the Emperor of 
Spain all lands that his subjects might discover; so 
the title seemed to ha fee simple in Cortez, who, from 
being a piratical, roving vagabond, bounded into 
royal honors. 

EXPEDITIONS OF DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT. 

Returning to Mexico, he immediately set about 
the expedition; but, delayed by the difficulty of 
building and fitting out ships on the western coast, 
he did not get off until 1535. Having landed on the 
lower peninsula of California, he found the country 
so barren and uninviting, that he abandoned the 
expedition, and returned to Mexico in 1537. On his 
return, he heard of the De Soto expedition, which, 
like all the other expeditions, had nearly, but not 
quite, reached the land where arms, as well as trap- 
pings for horses, were made of pure gold. This led 
to the fitting out of another expedition in 1542, 
under Jose R. Cabrillo, who sailed northward as far 
as Cape Mendocino, which he named Cape Mendoza, 
in honor of his friend, the Viceroy of Mexico. Keep- 
ing within sight of the coast the greater part of the 
way, he discovered the Earallone Islands, also some 
of the more southern groups; but, like his predeces- 
sor, failed to see the future Golden Gate. In an 
English work printed in 1839, Mr. James Alexander 
Forbes states that two out of the three vessels, com- 
posing this expedition, with some twenty men, were 
lost in the Gulf of California, in consequence of a 
mutiny and a difficulty with the natives, near La 
Paz. 

These expeditions were so unsatisfactory, that 
Cortez resolved upon exploring the coast himself. 
Three vessels were fitted out at Tehuantepec, he 
marching overland with a large body of soldiers, 
slaves, settlers, and priests. Cortez explored the 
Gulf of California, proved that California was not 
an island, but part of the main land. For some 
time the Gulf of California was known as the Sea of 
Cortez. It was also called The Red Sea (El Mar 
Rojo), from having a reddish color from the wash 
of the Colorado river, which empties into the gulf 
at the head. Cortez returned to Acapulco, but con- 
tinued to employ others in the explorations, which 
were confined mostly to lands in the vicinity of the 
gulf. Several attempts were made to settle the 
land, but, as it was very barren and poor, the col- 
onies made little progress. The natives were desti- 
tute of means and character, both sexes going nearly 
or quite naked. 



12 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



SIR FRANCIS DRAKES OPERATIONS. 

Sir Francis Drake reached the Pacific ocean in 
1578, through the Straits of Magellan, thirty-six 
years after Cabrillo named the Cape oi Mendocino, 
and, not having heard of the former expeditions, 
took possession of the whole country in the name of 
Queen Elizabeth. It has been claimed for him that 
he entered the Bay of San Francisco; but the lati- 
tude in which he located it (37° 59 5"), proves it to 
have been some miles north, at a place now called 
Drake's bay, though most of the old geographies 
give the present sea-port as " The Bay of Sir Francis 
Drake." It is strange that, having much inter- 
course with the natives, he should have failed to 
discover the great harbor which was in" sight from 
some of the surrounding hills. The real discovery 
of the Bay of San Francisco, was made by Portala, 
in an overland expedition. What a vision, when he 
stood on the top of some of the low ranges of mount- 
ains surrounding, and saw the rich valleys reposing 
in a perpetual Indian Summer, stretching to the 
northward sixty miles. Little did the Spaniard, or 
those who came after him, suppose that the rivers 
flowing into the bay ran over golden sands, or that 
the hills near the outlet would be covered by a city 
larger than any of the cities of magnificent Spain. 

It is now time to turn to the attempts to explore 
the country jn other ways. 

EXPEDITION OVERLAND — MARVELOUS STORIES. 

The ill success attending the expeditions up the 
coast, induced explorations by land, especially as 
marvelous reports of rich walled cities in the far 
north, occasionally reached the capital of Mexico. 
In less than fifty years from the discovery of Amer- 
ica, soldiers and priests had explored the Colorado 
river for a considerable distance above its mouth. 
The stories of a gigantic people, walled towns, and 
impassable canons a mile or more in depth, were con- 
signed to the same fate as the stories of mermaids 
and other sea monsters. Cervantes in Spain, and 
Dean Swift in England, had poured unsparing ridi- 
cule on the fabulous stories and achievements of the 
age succeeding the discovery of America. Since the 
exploring expedition sent out by the United States, 
the accounts of the great Colorado river have been 
overhauled and read with avidity, and what was 
then deemed a pleasant after-dinner fiction of some 
bibulous priest, has proved to be substantially cor- 
rect, though the Mojaves, who, doubtless, arc the 
persons described as giants, do not quite come up to 
their ancestors of three hundred and fifty years ago. 

As early as 1540 the Viceroy of New Spain, inter- 
ested in the stories of a San Franciscan monk who 
had seen some of the territory, sent out an expedi- 
tion under the command of Vasqucz de Coronado. 
When they struck the river, a party of twenty-five 
was detached and sent to the westward. They 
explored the river to the mouth, and from this point 
was sent the expedition which eventually succeeded 



in discovering the bay. Another of Coronado's 
captains, named Cardinas, reached the pueblos of 
the Moquis, and from these towns made a visit, 
under Indian guides, to a portion of the river some 
hundreds of miles above the explorations of pre- 
vious parties. The history states that after a march 
over a desert of twenty days, they came to a river, 
the banks of which were so high that they seemed 
to be three or four leagues in the air. The most 
active of the party attempted to descend, but came 
back in the evening, saying they had met with dif- 
ficulties which prevented them from reaching the 
bottom; that they had accomplished one-third of the 
descent, and from that point the river looked very 
large. They averred that some rocks, which ap- 
peared from above to be the height of a man, were 
higher than the tower of the cathedral of Seville. 
This is the earliest notice in any work of the cele- 
brated canon of the Colorado, the most astonishing 
of all mountain gorges, and which may, without 
doubt, be reckoned the greatest wonder of the world. 

EXPEDITION OP FATHER ESCALANTE. 

About one hundred years ago, Father Escalante 
visited the region north of New Mexico, keeping 
along the head-waters of the Colorado to Salt Lake, 
thence south-west to the Colorado river at a point 
nearly opposite that reached by one of Coronado's 
captains over two hundred years before. This mea- 
ger account of the great canon is about all that is 
on record previous to the acquisition of Arizona by 
the United States, though trappers and hunters 
sometimes related incredible stories of a country 
where great rivers ran in canons so deep that day- 
light never reached the bottom. As this river forms 
a part of the boundary of California, and was, to a 
great extent, from its unapproachable character, a 
barrier to the early settlement of this coast, thus 
perhaps preserving it for its present occupants, and 
as it has recently become a center of interest on 
account of the mines in its vicinity, a somewhat 
extended account of this remarkable, and, even now, 
little known wonder may be justifiable, and will bo 
incorporated into the work in a separate chapter. 



CHAPTER II. 
BIG CANON OF THE COLORADO. 

Lieutenant Whipple's Expedition — Lieutenant Ives' Expedi- 
tion — First Attempt to Explore the Canon — Land Party 
Organized — One Sight of the Eiver — First Exploration — 
Unwilling Venture — Consider the Situation— Death of One 
of the Parties — Three Months in the Canon — Arrival at 
Fort Colville — Exploration Made Under the Direction of 
the Smithsonian Institute — Indescribable Character of the 
Stream — Loss of Boats and Provisions — Death of a Portion 
of the Party — Emergence of the Survivors — Geology and 
Climate. 

LIEUTENANT WHIPPLE'S EXPEDITION. 

In the Spring of 1854 Lieutenant Whipple in com- 
mand of an expedition for the exploration and sur- 
vey of a railroad route near the 35th parallel, reached 
the Colorado at the mouth of Bill Williams' Fork, and 








*>£$\- 




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- 



BIG CANON OF THE COLORADO. 



13 



ascended the river from that point about fifty miles and 
reported the country as mostly impassable. From 
an elevated point a view of an apparent valley or 
course of a river could be seen, which seemed to be a 
net- work of impassable canons. This partial explo- 
ration still further intensified the interest in this 
region. That any portion of the United States was 
unapproachable was too absurd to credit. 

LIEUTENANT IVES' EXPEDITION. 

It was not until 1857 that an appropriation became 
available for further exploration. A small steamer 
was constructed for the purpose of ascendingthe river 
and shipped to San Francisco in parts, and thence re- 
shipped to Fort Yuma, where it was put together. 
When loaded it drew somewhat less than two feet of 
water, and the river was ascended four hundred and 
fifty miles above Fort Yuma. Sometimes the little 
craft was nearly over-whelmed in the treacherous cur- 
rents and sometimes the men were obliged to tow the 
steamer over shoals where it would touch bottom 
continually. Bands of natives would follow the 
boat, hugely amused with the puffing, snorting canoe 
that was, apparently, so helpless and good for noth- 
ing. At length the party came in sight of the 
much talked of canon, of which so little was known 
and so much conjectured. The enormous, perpendicu- 
lar walls of rocks, hundreds of feet high, which had 
formed the banks of the rivers in many places, had 
prepared them for wonders, but they did not ex- 
pect to see a large river come out of a gate-way two 
thousand feet high and only a few feet across. If 
the ancients had known of this place they would have 
added new horrors to their infernal regions. 

FIRST ATTEMPT TO EXPLORE THE CANON. 

The attempt to navigate the canon with the steamer 
without a previous reconnoissance was thought too 
hazardous, and a boat expedition was organized. 
Lieutenant Ives with three or four men entered the 
dark gateway. With much labor they worked their 
way, sometimes rowing and sometimes dragging the 
boat over rapids. Night coming on, the party took* 
advantage of a small shingle beach for a camping place. 
Some drift-wood lodged in a cleft of rocks furnished 
material for a camp fire. There was no need of 
sentinels. Eternal silence reigned ; not even the 
chirping of an insect broko the low murmer of the 
waters as they wound their tortuous way thi*ough 
the dark depths. We quote freely from his report 
to the Secretary of War : — 

" March 10, 1858. * * * Darkness supervened 
with surprising suddenness. Pall after pall of shade 
fell, as it were in clouds, upon the deep recesses 
about us. The line of light through the opening 
above at last became blurred and indistinct, and, 
save the dull red glare of the camp fire, all was 
enveloped in a murky gloom. Soon the narrow 
belt again brightened as the rays of the moon 
reached the summits of the mountains. Gazing far 
upwards upon the edges of the overhanging walls 
we witnessed the gradual illumination. A few iso- 
lated turrets and pinnacles first appeared in strong- 



relief upon the blue band of the heavens. As the 
silvery light descended and fell irpon the opposite 
crest of the abyss, strange and uncouth shapes seem 
to start out, all sparkling and blinking in the light, 
and to be peering over at us as we lay watching 
them from the bottom of the profound chasm. The 
contrast between the vivid glow above and the black 
obscurity beneath, formed one of the most striking 
points in the singular picture. This morning as soon 
as the light permitted, we were again on the way. 
* * * The canon continued to in- 

crease in size and magnificence. No description can 
convey an idea of the peerless and majestic grandeur 
of this water-way. Wherever the river makes a turn 
the entire panorama changes, and one startling nov- 
elty after another appears and disappears with be- 
wildering rapidity. Stately facades, august cathedrals, 
amphitheatres, rotundas, castellated walls and rows 
of time-stained ruins surmounted by every form of 
tower, minaret, dome and spire have been moulded 
from the Cyclopean masses of rock that form the 
mighty defile. The solitude, the stillness, the sub- 
dued light and the vastness of every surrounding 
object, produced an impression of awe that ultimately 
became almost painful. As hour after hour passed, 
we began to look anxiously for some kind of an out- 
let from the range, but the declining day only 
brought fresh piles of mountains, higher apparently 
than any before seen. We had made up our minds 
to pass another night in the canon and were search- 
ing for a spot large enough for a resting place, when 
we came into a narrow passage between two mam- 
moth peaks that seemed to be nodding across the 
stream, and unexpectedly found at the upper end the 
termination of the ' Black Canon,' and we came 
into rather of an extensive valley, Avithout a trace of 
vegetation however; but the hills and mountains 
around were in parti-colors and prevented the scene 
from being monotonous. The length of the Black 
Cation is about twenty-five miles. It was evident 
that the river could be navigated no farther. Climb- 
ing a mountain nothing but a confused mass of vol- 
canic rocks piled in confusion upon each other came 
to view. * * * Farther to the east could be 
seen the course of the river where it formed the 
Big Canon." 

LAND PARTT ORGANIZED. 

The exploring party returned to the steamboat 
and organized an expedition to explore the river on 
the south side towards the Bocky Mountains, and the 
boat was sent back to Fort Yuma. In a few days 
they struck the lofty plateau, through which the 
Colorado river with its numerous tributaries, or com- 
panion rivers, carry the waters formed from the 
melting snows of the Bocky Mountains. Scarcely 
any rain falls on this elevated plain, and the banks of 
the rivers remain as sharp as they were millions of 
years ago when the channels were first eroded. Cen- 
tury after century the work of deepening the channel 
goes on. Before the children of Israel went down in- 
to Egypt; before the building of the Pyramids; before 
the rude ancestors of the Egyptians found the Nile 
valley ; even before the Nile valley itself was formed 
the Colorado rivers had done the most of their work. 
It was out of the question to explore the river. 
They could only approach it at one point. Only the 
bird that could wing its way. for hundreds of miles, 



14 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



could make its way over these cavernous depths thai 
marked the course of the river and all its branches. 
From elevated points they could see table-land, 
rising, base on base, height on height, with impassa- 
ble canons between. As the limits of this work will 
permit only an abbreviated description of the inter- 
esting exploration, an account of one attempt to reach 
the river, giving nearly the author's own words, 
which cannot be condensed witbout doing injustice 
to the subject, will close tbe story of this expedition. 

ONE SIGHT OF THE RIVER. 

" Oar altitude is very great. During the last 
march the ascent was continuous, and the barome- 
ter shows an elevation of nearly seven thousand 
feet. The Colorado is not far distant, and we must 
be opposite to the most stupendous part of the 
'Dig Canon.' Tbe bluffs arc in view, but the inter- 
vening country is cut up by side canons and cross 
ravines, and no place has j'et been found that pre- 
sents a favorable approach to the gigantic chasm. * 
* * Tbe snow-storm (this was in tbe "Winter) had 
extended over but little area, and the road, at first 
bcavy, in a mile or two became diy and good. The 
pines disappeared and the cedars gradually dimin- 
ished. * * * Each slope surmounted disclosed a 
new summit similar to that just passed, till the end 
of ten miles, wben the bigbest part of tbe plateau 
was attained, and a sublime spectacle lay spread 
before us. 

" Toward tbe north was the field of plateaus and 
canons already mentioned, and shooting out from 
these a line of magnificent bluffs, extending eastward 
an enormous distance, marked tbe course of the 
canon of the Little Colorado. Farther south, eighty 
miles distant, towered the vast pile of the San Fran- 
cisco mountain, its conical summit covered with 
snow and sharply defined against the sky. Several 
other peaks were visible a little to tbe right, and 
halfway between us and this cluster of mighty and 
venerable volcanos was the ' Red Butte,' described 
by Lieutenant Whipple (1853), standing in isolated 
prominence upon the level plain. * * * 

" The sun was oppressively warm, and every place 
whose appearance gave promise of water was 
searched, but without success. Ten miles conducted 
us to the head of a ravine, down which there was a 
well-beaten Indian trail. There was every prospect 
therefore that we were approaching a settlement, 
similar to that of the Hualpais, on Diamond river. 
The descent was more rapid than the former had 
been, and in the course of a few miles we had gone 
down into the plateau one or two thousand feet, 
and the bluffs on either side had- assumed stupendous 
proportions. Still no signs of habitations were vis- 
ible. The worn-out and thirsty beasts bad begun 
to flag when we were brought to a stand-still by a 
fall one hundred feet deep in the bottom of the canon. 
At the brink of the precipice was an overhanging 
ledge of rock, from which we could look down, as if 
into a well, upon the continuation of the gorge far 
below. The break reached completely across the 
ravine, and the side walls were nearly perpendicular. 
There was no egress in that direction, and it seemed 
a marvel that a trail should lead to a place where 
there was notbing to do but return. A closer inspec- 
tion showed that the trail still continued along the 
canon, traversing horizontally the face of the right- 
hand bluff. A short distance of it seemed as though 
a mountain goat could scarcely keep its footing upon 



the slight indentation that appeared like a thread 
attached to the rocky wall, but a trial proved that 
the path, though narrow and dizzy, had been cut 
with some care into the- surface of the cliff, and afforded 
afoot-hold, level and broad enough both for men and 
animals. 1 rode upon it first, and the rest of the 
party and the train followed— one by one — looking 
very much like a row of insects crawling upon the 
side of a building. We proceeded for nearly a mile 
along this singular pathway, which preserved its 
horizontal direction. 'i'hc bottom of the canon 
meanwhile had been rapidly descending, and there 
were two or three falls where it dropped a hundred 
feet at a time, thus greatly increasing the depth of 
the chasm. The change had taken place so gradu- 
ally that I was not sensible of it, till, glancing down 
the side of my mule, I found that be was walking 
within three inches of the edge of the brink of a 
sheer gulf a thousand feet deep; on the other side, 
nearly touching my knee, was an almost vertical 
wall rising to an enormous altitude. The sight made 
my head swim, and I dismounted and got ahead of 
the mule, a difficult and delicate operation, which I 
was thankful to bave safely performed. A part of 
the men became so giddy that they were obliged to 
creep upon their hands and knees, being unable to 
walk or stand. In some places there was barely 
room to walk, and a slight deviation in a step would 
have precipitated one into the frightful abyss. 1 was 
a good deal alarmed lest some obstacle should be 
encountered that Avould make it impossible to go 
ahead, for it was certainly impracticable to return. 
After an interval of uncomfortable suspense, the face 
of the rock made an angle, and just beyond the 
angle was a projection from the main Avail with a 
surface fifteen or twenty yards square that would 
afford afoot-hold. The continuation of the wall was 
perfectly vertical, so that the trail could no longer 
follow it, and we found that the path descended the 
steep face of the cliff to the bottom of the canon. It 
was a desperate road to traverse, but located with a 
good deal of skill, zigzaging down the precipice, and 
taking advantage of every crevice and fissure that 
could afford a foot-hold. It did not take long to 
discover that no mule could accomplish tbis descent, 
and nothing remained but to turn back. We were 
glad to have even this privilege in our power. The 
jaded brutes were collected upon the little summit, 
where they could be turned around, and then com- 
menced to return from the hazardous journey. The 
sun shone directly into the cafion, and the glare 
reflected from the walls made the heat intolerable. 
The disappointed beasts, now two days without 
water, with glassy eyes and protruding tongues, plod- 
ded slowly along, uttering tbe most melancholy 
cries. The nearest water, of which we had any 
knowledge, was almost thirty miles distant. There 
was but one chance of saving the train, and after 
reaching an open portion of the ravine the packs 
and saddles were removed, and two or three Mexi- 
cans started for the lagoons, mounted upon the least 
exhausted animals and driving the others loose be- 
fore them. It was somewhat dangerous to detach 
them thus from the main party but there was no help 
for it. Some of the mules will give out before the 
night march is over, but the knowedge that they 
are on the road to water will enable the most of 
them to reach it in spite of their weariness and the 
length of the way. 

" It was estimated that, at this point which was 
within a few miles of the main canon, about one-half 
of the original plain had been cutaway by the action 
of the river and its branches. 



BIG CANON OF THE COLORADO. 



15 



" A party was made up to explore the canon. The 
distance to the precipice where the mules were turned 
back was about five miles. The precipice was de- 
scended without difficulty, though in one or two places 
the path traversed smooth, inclined plains that 
made the footing insecure and the crossing danger- 
ous. The bottom of the canon which from the sum- 
mit looked smooth, was found to be covered with 
small hills thirty or forty feet high. Along the mid- 
dle of the canon started another one with low walls 
at the starting point, which became lofty precipices 
as the base of the new ravine sunk deeper and deeper 
into the earth. Along the bottom of this gorge we 
followed the trail, distinctly seen when the surface 
was not composed of rocks. Every few minutes low 
falls and ledges were met with, which we had to 
jump or slide down, till a formidable number 
of obstacles were to be met in returning. Like 
other canons this was circuitous, and at each turn we 
expected to find something new and startling. We 
were deeper in the bowels of the earth than we had 
ever been before, and surrounded by walls and tow- 
ers of such imposing dimensions that it would be 
useless to attempt describing them; but the effects of 
magnitude had begun to pall, and the walk from the 
foot of the precipice was monotonously dull; no sign 
of life could be discerned above or below. At the end 
of thirteen miles from the precipice an obstacle pre- 
sented itself that there seemed to be no possibility of 
overcoming. A stone slab, reaching from one side 
of the canon to the other, terminated the plain 
which we were descending. Looking over the 
edge it appeared that the next level was forty 
feet below. This time there was no trail along 
the side of the bluffs, for these were smooth and 
perpendicular. A spring of water rose from the 
cafion above and trickled over the precipice, 
forming a beautiful cascade. It was supposed 
that the Indians must have come to this point merely 
to procure water; but this theory was not satisfac- 
tory and we sat down to consider the situation. 

"Mr. Egloffstein lay down by the side of the creek, 
and projecting his head over the ledge to watch the 
cascade discovered a solution to the mystery. Below 
the shelving rock, and hidden by it and the tall, stood 
a crazy -looking ladder, made of rough sticks bound 
together with thongs of bark. It was almost per- 
pendicular and rested upon a bed of angular stones. 
The rounds had become rotten from the incessant flow 
of the water. Mr. Egloffstein, anxious to have the 
first view of what was below, scrambled over the 
rock and got his feet upon the first round. Being a 
soiid weight, he was too much for the insecure fabric, 
which commenced giving away. One side fortunately 
stood firm, and holding on to this with a tight grip 
he made a precipitate descent. The other side and 
all the rounds broke loose and accompanied him to 
the bottom in a general crash, effectually cutting off 
the communication. Leaving us to devise means of 
getting him back he ran to the bend to explore. The 
bottom of the canon had been reached. He found 
that he was at the edge of a stream ten or fifteen 
yards wide fringed with cottonwoods and willows. 
The walls of the canon spread out for a short distance 
leaving room for a narrow belt of bottom-land on 
which were fields of corn and a few scattered huts. 
It was impossible to follow the stream to its union 
with the main river, which was not far off. Nor could 
a situation be found where a complete view of the 
great canon might be obtained; at one spot the top 
could be seen, at another the bottom. Measurements 
were taken which showed the walls of the canon to 
be over six thousand feet in height." 



Notwithstanding all the efforts backed by money 
and government the great canon was not entered, 
at least from the side. The parties safely made their 
way out of the chasm, and resumed their journey 
towards Fort Defiance, finding on their way the 
towns of stone houses which the early Spanish ex- 
plorers saw and which had since remained unknown 
and mostly forgotten. 

FIRST EXPLORATION — UNWILLING VENTURE. 

Some of my readers may inquire whether this 
canon has never been explored? Twice only of 
which any record has been found. Some time in the 
sixties, three men, prospecting on the head-waters of 
the river in the Colorado Territory, fell into a diffi- 
culty with the Indians. Two succeeded in reaching 
their boats, and escaped by rowing swiftly down the 
stream, the swift current and bold banks facilitating 
their flight. When they had gone so far as to feel 
secure from pursuit, and took time to consider the 
situation, they found themselves floating in a 
stream, so swift as to prevent their return, even if 
they desired it, and with banks so precipitous as to 
make escape in that direction impossible. The stream 
became swifter and the banks or walls of the canon 
higher every hour. 

THEY CONSIDER THE SITUATION. 

A council of war was held, and all evidence at- 
tainable was considered. The questions put forth in 
one of Addison's essays a hundred and fifty years 
ago, " Where am I ? What sort of place do I in- 
habit ?" seemed particularly applicable to the situa- 
tion. As to the first question, they could only say, 
we are in "Uncle Sam's" dominion, and as to the 
last, it is a " hell of a place." One of them remem- 
bered of hearing some old trappers, while sitting 
around a camp fire near Salt Lake, tell a story of a 
great river that was lost in a range of mountains 
and flowed hundreds of miles under ground. An- 
other said that it did not flow under ground, but in a 
narrow channel thousands of feet in. depth, so deep 
that daylight never reached the bottom. None of 
them, however, had ever seen the river under these 
circumstances. The Indians believed, some of them 
at least, that the deep gorge led to Heaven, and 
others thought it led to Hell ! It was certain that 
the route- to the blessed regions would not go through 
any such country as they were passing ; and as to 
the latter place, had not Beecher knocked the bottom 
out of it? So they concluded to go on ; in fact, there 
was no other alternative. About the third day they 
heard a great roaring of falling water, and before 
they had time to consider were plunged over a cat- 
aract, that proved not a very high one, for though 
the boat was smashed, they saved their lives by 
swimming to an island at the foot of the falls, 
and were able to save most of their provisions. 
They now constructed a raft of dry, cotton -wood 
logs, which they found lodged high up on the island, 
and continued their voyage. 



10 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



DEATH OF ONE OF THE PARTIES. 

Falls and rapids being now frequent, and the 
plunges often throwing them off their craft, they 
imprudently lashed themselves to it. Passing the 
next cataract the raft was upsot, and one of the two 
was lost. The survivor found himself on the raft, 
now bottom side up, though entirely ignorant as to 
how he succeeded in disengaging himself while under 
the water. 

Day after day, week after week, until the weeks 
became months, he floated down the river, encoun- 
tering many obstacles but escaping with his life. 
The river was destitute of fish or animals, but in 
places ho found the mesquite bean Avhich would sus- 
tain life. Months afterward a soldier at Fort Col- 
ville saw a log floating in the river appearing to have 
come out of the canon. The unusual circumstance 
caused him to turn a telescope upon it. " My (rod !" 
said he, "there is a man on that log! I" A boat 
was dispatched, and the man was brought ashore, 
nearly famished, speechless, naked, and his body cov- 
ered with sores. After some nourishment had been 
taken, he was able to say that he had come through 
the great canon. The man recovered, and for many 
years afterward drove a stage in Arizona. 

EXPLORATION UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE SMITHSO- 
NIAN INSTITUTE. 

The Government of the United States during these 
years had enough business on hand without attending 
to expeditions in the cause of science, for, so far, the 
river had no value. But the Smithsonian Institute 
undertook the exploration of the river. Lieutenant 
Powell, an eminent scientist and explorer, was sent 
out to gather all the information about it that was 
possible. The transcontinental railroad now made 
the matter easier. He interviewed the trappers and 
hunters at Salt Lake and Fort Bridger ; visited 
Arizona, and heard all that the stage-driver could re- 
member, and went East to make preparations for the 
descent of the river. The scientific public were now 
aroused, and many were anxious to accompany the 
expedition. Several boats were made in water-tight 
compartments, so contrived as to float though they 
might be stove. Provisions, instruments and all nec- 
essary articles were inclosed in water-tight, rubber 
bags. On the 24th of May, 1869, he left the line of 
the Union Pacific Railroad at the Green River Sta- 
tion. Those who love to read of the grand, the pictur- 
esque, the terrible, will find their satisfaction in reading 
" Powell's Explorations of the Colorado Canon." The 
limits of this book will only permit a short account 
of the trip which was full of dangers as well as 
pleasure. They passed safely down the upper waters. 
Some hundred miles below the starting-point, the 
labor commenced. Sometimes the river would zig- 
zag between metamorphic slates and granite spurs, 
making a channel like a line of saw teeth ; then it 
would leave the granite and cut a vast amphitheatre 
in the sandstone, miles across and thousands of feet 



high. Towers, domes, castles, minarets, and all the 
forms of ancient and modern architecture seemed 
anticipated. Even sculpture was not forgotten, for 
in many places gigantic figures seemed to be guard- 
ing the great canon, and threatening to overwhelm 
all who should dare to invade the ancient solitude. 
For months the party continued their voyage. Not- 
withstanding their ample preparations, it was nearly 
a failure. They lost their boats and most of their 
provisions, as well as their scientific instruments. 
They were uncertain whether the canon was threo, 
four, or five hundred miles long. When nearly 
through it was proposed to leave the river and try 
to ascend its banks. It was urged that more rapids 
on the junction of the granite and slate would end 
the expedition. Part of the men determined to try 
to scale the walls. They were given a part of the 
scant provisions, and also a copy of the records of 
the trip. Both parties bid each other " good- 
bye," with the firm belief that the other was 
destined to certain destruction. Powell remained 
with the party to continue down the river, hoping 
that if he perished some record of their trip would 
be picked up on the lower river or the Gulf of Cal- 
ifornia. His judgment proved the best. August 30th 
he emerged from the canon, in somewhat better 
plight than the stage-driver did, having witnessed 
undoubtedly the greatest wonder of the world. 
Nothing was heard of the other party for years. A 
prospector brought the news that they scaled the 
walls of the canon, but were soon afterwards killed by 
the Indians, being mistaken for a party of white men 
who had committed an outrage on an Indian woman 

GEOLOGY AND CLIMATE. 

The Colorado river drains a territory of three 
hundred thousand square miles. A portion of this, 
eight hundred miles in extent, resting on the Rocky 
Mountains, is fed by snows, and has numerous rivers 
which, with all their branches, form canons — one 
leading into another and all finally merging into the 
grand gorge, six thousand feet deep and three hund- 
red miles long. The lower part of the Colorado for 
one thousand miles runs through an almost rainless 
country. There is no wearing away of the banks into 
the rounded, graceful forms so usual in the vicinities of 
rivers. The channels of the rivers being so deep 
the country is thoroughly drained of water, and 
very few springs emerge from the surface. The soil 
is consequently destitute of vegetation. There are 
evidences, however, of an extensive alluvial deposit, 
of a time when the river meandered through fertile 
plains like the Mississippi. The elephant, the mas- 
todon, and their contemporaries wandered in herds 
over suitable pastures where now desolation reigns. 

It is difficult to estimate the influence which this 
strange system of rivers has exerted over California. 
Had not the early explorers when in search of gold 
met this obstruction, our mines would have been 
discovered and worked, and California would have 





L^rryJ^ 




twompSo.-i s, v,;r5r . i-ue. OAKLAND, OAL. 



PERMANENT OCCUPATION OF CALIFORNIA. 



17 



been cursed with the blight that has covered all the 
Spanish possessions. It was reserved for a more 
vigorous race to develop. 

The climatic influence is also great. It is now be- 
lieved that our dry, desicating north winds find 
their way from the Arizona deserts, and that the 
particles of red dust with which our summer atmos- 
phere is loaded, is finely-pulverized Ai'izona soil. 



CHAPTER III. 



The Exiles of Loreto — Father Tierra's Methods of Conversion — 
Death of Father Tierra — Arrest of the Jesuits — Midnight 
Parting — Permanent Occupation of California — Missions in 
Charge of Francisco Friars — Character of Father Junipero — 
Exploring Expeditions — Origin of the name of the Bay- 
Mission Dolores — Death of Father Junipero. 

It was the custom of the Spanish Government to 
send out a certain number of Christian missionaries 
with each expedition, whether for discovery or con- 
quest. When the conquerors took possession of a 
new territory, in the name of the King of Spain, the 
accompanying Fathers also claimed it for the spirit- 
ual empire of the Holy Church, and in this manner 
California became, at once, the possession of both 
Church and State, by right of discovery and con- 
quest. 

As before stated, California was discovered in 
1534, by an expedition which Cortez had caused to 
be fitted out in the inland seas of Tehuantepec. 
From that time, during a period of one hundred and 
fifty years, some twenty maritime expeditions sailed 
successively from the shores of New Spain to the 
coast of California, with the object of perfecting 
its conquest; but none of them obtained any satis- 
faetory result, beyond an imperfect knowledge of the 
geographical situation of the country. The barren 
aspect of the coast, and the nakedness and poverty 
of the savages, who lived in grottoes, caves, and holes 
in the ground, clearly indicated that they had scarcely 
advanced beyond the primitive condition of man, 
and discouraged the adventurers, who were in search 
of another country like Mexico, abounding in natural 
wealth, and the appliances of a rude civilization. 
After the expenditure of immense sums of both pub- 
lic and private wealth, the permanent settlement of 
California was despaired of. The Spanish Govern- 
ment would advance no more money, private enter- 
prise was turned in another direction, and it was 
decided to give over the, so far, fruitless experiment 
to the Fathers of the church. Many attempts had 
been made to Christianize the natives of the Pacific 
coast. Cortez is said to have had several ecclesias- 
tics in his train, though there is no account of their 
having attempted to convert the natives, or even of 
landing among them. The first recorded attempt 
was made about the beginning of the year 1596 by 
four San Francisco friars, who came with Yis- 
caifio's expedition. During their stay of t\vo months 
at La Paz, they visited many of the Indians, who 
thought them children of the sun, and treated them 
3 



very kindly. Three Carmelite friars also came with 
Viscaino's third expedition in 1602, two Jesuit mis- 
sionaries in 1648, two Franciscans in 1688, and three 
Jesuits in 1683, the latter with the expedition of 
Admiral Otondo. The celebrated Father Kiihno 
was one who came with the latter expedition. Once, 
when attempting to explain the doctrine of the res- 
urrection to the savages, he was at loss for a word to 
express his meaning. He put some flies under the 
water until they appeared to be dead, and then 
exposed them to the rays of the sun, when 
they revived. The Indians cried out in astonish- 
ment, "I bimuhueite ! I bimuhueite !'.' which the 
Fathers understood as "they have come to life," the 
expression he wanted, and applied it to the resurrec- 
tion of the Redeemer. 

No substantial success was, however, achieved 
until about 1675. Then appeared the heroic apostle 
of California civilization, Father John Salva Tierra, 
of the Society of Jesus, commonly called Jesuits. 

Father Tierra, the founder, and afterwards visita- 
dore of the missions of California, was a native of 
Milan, born of noble parentage and Spanish ances- 
try, in 1644. Having completed his education at 
Parma, he joined the order of Jesuits, and went as a 
missionary to Mexico in 1675. He was robust in 
health, exceedingly handsome in person, resolute of 
will, highly talented, and full of religious zeal. For 
several years he conducted the missions of Sonora 
successfully, when he was recalled to Mexico in con- 
sequence of his great ability and singular virtues, 
and was employed in the chief offices of the provin- 
ces. After ten years of ineffectual solicitation, he 
obtained permission of the Viceroy to go to Cali- 
fornia, for the purpose of converting the inhabitants, 
on condition that the possession of land should be 
taken in the name of the King of Spain, without his 
being called on to contribute anything towards the 
expenses of the expedition. Tierra associated with 
himself the Jesuit Father, Juan Ugarte, a native of 
Honduras. On the 10th of October, 1697, they 
sailed from the port of Yaqui, in Sonora, for Lower 
California, and, after encountering a disastrous 
storm, and suffering partial shipwreck on the gulf, 
landed, on the 19th of that month, at San Bruno, 
at Saint Dennis bay. Not finding that place suitable 
for their purpose, the Fathers removed to St. Dyon- 
issius, afterwards named Loreto, and there setup the 
sign of civilization and Christianity on its lonely 
shore. Thus Loreto, on the east side of the penin- 
sula, in latitude 25° 35' north of the equator, may be 
considered the Plymouth Rock of the Pacific coast. 
This historic and memorable expedition consisted of 
only two ships and nine men, being a corporal, five 
private soldiers, three Indians, the captain of the 
vessel, and the two Fathers. 

On the 19th of October, 1697, the little party of 
adventurers went ashore at Loreto, and were kindly 
received by about fifty natives, who were induced to 
kneel down and kiss the crucifix. 



18 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



METHODS OF CONVERSION. 

It is said of Father Ugarte that he was a man of 
powerful frame. When he first celebrated the cere- 
monials of the church before the natives they were 
inclined to jeer and laugh over solemnities. On one 
occasion a huge Indian was causing considerable dis- 
turbance, and was demoralizing the other Indians 
with his mimicry and childish fun. Father Ugarte 
caught him by his long hair, swung him around a 
few times, threw him in a heap on the floor, and 
proceeded with the rites. This argument had a 
converting effect, as he never rebelled again. As 
the conversion of the natives was the main object of 
the settlement, and a matter of the greatest impor- 
tance, to the natives at least, no meanswere spared to 
effect it. When the natives around the mission had 
been Christianized, expeditions inland were under- 
taken to capture more material for converts. Some- 
times many lives were taken, but they generally suc- 
ceeded in gathering in from fifty to a hundred women 
and children, the men afterwards following. Two 
or three days' exhortation (confinement and starva- 
tion) was generally sufficient to effect a change of 
heart, after which the convert was clothed, fed, and 
put to work. Father Ugarte worked with them, 
teaching them to plant, sow, reap, and thresh, and 
they were soon good Christians. 

The imposing ceremonies and visible symbols of 
the Catholic church are well calculated to strike the 
ignorant savage with awe. Striking results were 
often attained with pictures. When moving from 
one mission to another, and especially when meeting 
strange Indians, the priests exhibited a picture of 
the Virgin Mary on one side of a canvas, and Satan 
roasting in flames on the other side. They were 
offered a choice, to become subjects of the Holy 
Mother, or roast in the flames with Satan, and gen- 
erally accepted the former, especially as it was accom- 
panied with food. 

DEATH OF TIERRA. 

After twenty years of earnest labor, privation, 
danger, and spiritual success, Father Tierra was 
recalled to Mexico by the new Viceroy, for consul- 
tation. He was then seventy years old; and, not- 
withstanding his age and infirmities, he set out on 
horseback from San Bias for Tepic; but, having 
fainted by the way, he was carried on a litter by the 
Indians to Guadalajara, where he died July 17, 1717, 
and was buried with appropriate ceremonies behind 
the altar in the chapel of our Lady of Loreto. 

The historic village of Loreto, the ancient capital 
of California, is situated on the margin of the gulf, 
in the center of St. Dy onissius' Cove. The church, 
built in 1742, is still in tolerable preservation, and, 
among the vestiges of its former richness, has eighty- 
six oil paintings; some of them by Murillo, and other 
celebrated masters, which, though more than a hun- 
dred years old, are still in a good condition; also 



some fine silver work, valued at six thousand dol- 
lars. A greal storm in 1827 destroyed many of the 
buildings of the mission. Those remaining, are in 
a state of decay. It was the former custom of the 
pearl-divers to dedicate the products of certain days 
to Our Lady of Loreto; and, on one occasion, there 
fell to the lot of the Virgin a magnificent pearl, as 
largo as a pigeon's egg, of wonderful purity and 
brilliancy. The Fathers thought proper to change 
its destination, and presented it to the Queen of 
Spain, who gratefully and piously sent Our Lady of 
Loreto a magnificent new gown. Some people were 
unkind enough to think the queen had the better of 
the transaction. 

ARREST OP THE JESUITS. 

The Jesuits continued their missionary work in 
Lower California for seventy years. On the second 
day of April, 1797, all of the Order throughout the 
Spanish dominions, at home and abroad, were ar- 
rested by order of Charles III., and thrown into 
prison, on the charge of conspiring against the State 
and the life of the king. Nearly six thousand were 
subjected to that decree, which also directed their 
expulsion from California, as well as all other colo- 
nial dependencies of Spain. The execution of the 
despotic order was intrusted to Don Gaspar Portala, 
the Governor of the province. Having assembled 
the Fathers of Loreto on the eve of the nativity, 
December 24th, he acquainted them with the heart- 
breaking news. Whatever may have been the 
faults of the Jesuits in Europe, they certainly had 
been models of devoted Christians in the new world. 
They braved the dangers of hostile savages, ex- 
posed themselves to the malarious fevers incident 
to new countries, and had taken up their residences 
far from the centers of civilization and thought, so 
dear to men of cultivated minds, to devote them- 
selves, soul and body, to the salvation of the natives, 
that all civilized nations seemed bent on extermin- 
ating. It is probable that the simple-minded son 
of the forest understood little of the mysteries of 
theology; and his change of heart was more a 
change of habit, than the adoption of any saving 
religious dogma. They abandoned many of their 
filthy habits, and learned to respect the family ties. 
They were taught to cultivate the soil, to build com- 
fortable houses, and to cover their nakedness with 
garments. They had learned to love and revere 
the Fathers, who were ever kind to them. 

MIDNIGHT PARTING. 

After seventy years of devoted attention to the 
savages; after building pleasant homes in the wilder- 
ness, and surrounding themselves with loving and 
devoted friends, they received the order to depart. 
They took their leave on the night of February 3, 
1768, amidst the outcries and lamentations of the 
people, who, in spite of the soldiers, who could not 
keep them back, rushed upon the departing Fathers, 



PERMANENT OCCUPATION OF CALIFORNIA. 



19. 



kissing their bands, and clinging convulsively to 
them. The leave-taking was brief, but affecting: 
"Adieu, my dear children! Adieu, land of our adop- 
tion! Adieu, California! It is the will of God!" 
And then, amid the sobs and lamentations, heard all 
along the shore, they turned away, reciting the 
litany of the Blessed Mother of God, and were seen 
no more. 

For one hundred and sixty years after the dis- 
covery of California, it remained comparatively un- 
known. It is true that many expeditions were 
fitted out .to explore it for gold and precious stones. 
The first was fast locked in mountains of* the Sierras, 
which were occupied by bands of hostile and war- 
like Indians; and the last have not yet been found. 
The circumstances attending the discovery of the 
great bay, will always be of interest, and deserve a 
place in every record; for up tO 1769. no navigator 
ever turned the prow of his vessel into the narrow 
entrance of the Golden Gate. 

On the expulsion of the Jesuits from Lower Cali- 
fornia, the property of the missions, consisting oi 
extensive houses, flocks, pasture lands, cultivated 
fields, orchards, and vineyards, was intrusted to the 
College of San Francisco in Mexico, for the benefit 
of the Order of St. Francis. The zealous scholar, 
Father Junipero Serra, was appointed to the charge 
of all the missions of Lower California. 

Father Junipero, as he was called, was born of 
humble parents in the island of Majorca, on the 24th 
of November, 1713. Like the prophet Samuel, he 
was dedicated to the priesthood from his infancy, 
and having completed- his studies in the Convent of 
San Bernardino, he conceived the idea of devoting 
himself to the immediate service of God; and went 
from thence to Palma, the capital of the province, 
to acquire the higher learning necessary for the 
priesthood. At his earnest request, he was received 
into the Order of St. Francis, at the age of sixteen; 
and, at the end of one year's probation, made his 
religious profession, September 15, 1731. Having 
finished his studies in philosophy and theology, he 
soon acquired a high rejmtation as a writer and 
orator, and his services were sought for in every 
direction; but, while enjoying these distinctions at 
home, his heart was set on his long projected mission 
to the heathen of the New World. He sailed from 
Cadiz for America, August 28, 1749, and landed at 
Vera Cruz, whence he went to the City of Mexico, 
joined the College of San Fernando, and was made 
President of* the missions of Sierra Gorda and San 
Saba. On his appointment to the missions of Cali- 
fornia, he immediately entered upon active duties, 
and' proceeded to carry out his grand design of the 
civilization of the Pacific coast. Acting under the 
instructions of the Viceroy of Mexico, two expedi- 
tions were fitted out to explore and colonize Upper 
or Northern California, of which little or nothing 
was known, one of which was to proceed by sea, 
and the other by land; one to carry the heavy sup- 



plies, the other to drive the flocks and herds. The 
first ship, the San Carlos, left Cape St. Lucas, in 
Lower California, January 9, 1769, and was followed 
by the San Antonio on the 15th of* the same month. 
A third vessel, the San Jose, was dispatched from 
Loreto on the 16th of June. After much suffering, 
these real pioneers of California civilization, reached 
San Diego; the San Carlos, on the 1st of May; the 
San Antonio, on the 11th of April, 1769, the ci-ews 
having been well nigh exhausted by scurvy, thirst, 
and starvation. After leaving Loreto, the San Jose 
was never heard of more. 

EXPLORING EXPEDITIONS. 

The overland expedition was divided into two 
divisions; one under command of Don Gaspar de 
Portala, the appointed Military Governor of the New 
Territory; the other, under Capt. Rivera Y. Moncado. 
Rivera and his company, consisting of Father Crespi, 
twenty -five soldiers, six muleteers, and a party of 
Lower California Indians, started from Villaceta on 
the 24th of March, and reached San Diego on the 
14th of May, 1769. Up to that time, no white man 
had ever lived in Upper California; and then began 
to rise the morning star of our civilization. 

The second division, accompanied by Father 
Junipero, organized the first mission in Upper 
California on the 16th of July, 1769; and there the 
first native Californian was baptized on the 26th of 
December, of that year. These are memorable 
points in the ecclesiastical history of this coast. 

On the 14th of July, 1769, Governor Portala 
started out in search of Monterey, as described 
by previous navigators. He was accompanied by 
Fathers Juan Crespi and Francisco Gomez ; the 
party consisting of fifty-six white persons, including 
a sergeant, an engineer, and thirty-three soldiers, 
and a company oi emigrants from Sonora, together 
with a company of Indians from Lower California. 
They missed their course, and could not find the 
Bay of Monterey, but continued on northward, and, 
on the 25th day of October, 1769, came upon the 
great Bay of San Francisco, which they named in 
honor of the titular saint of the friar missionaries. 

ORIGIN OF THE NAME OP THE BAY. 

It is said that, while on this expedition, a regret 
was expressed that no mission was as yet named 
after the patron of the Order. Says Portala, " Let 
the saint guide us to a good harbor, and we will 
name a mission for him." When they came in sight 
of the bay, Father Gomez cried, " There is the har- 
bor of San Francisco," and thus it received its name. 

Father Junipero Serra was not of this illustrious 
company of explorers, and did not visit the Bay ol 
San Francisco for nearly six years after its dis- 
covery. The honor belongs to Fathers Crespi and 
Gomez, Governor Portala, and their humbler com- 
panions. The party then returned to San Diego, 
which they reached on the 24th of January, 1770, 



20 



HISTORY OF AMADOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



a iter an absence of six months and ten days. Six 
years thereafter, on the 9th of October, 1776, the 
Mission of San Francisco de los Dolores, was founded 
on the western shore of the great bay, the old church 
remaining in tolerable preservation to the present 
time, the most interesting landmark of our present 
civilization. 

MISSION DOLORES. 

One may retire from the noise and bustle of the 
city, and spend a pleasant hour among the quaint 
surroundings of the old church. The adobe walls, 
the columns of doubtful order of architecture, the 
bells hung with rawhide which called the dusky 
converts to worship, all were doubtless objects of 
wonder and mystery to the simple-minded natives. 
From 1776 to 1881, what changes on either side of 
the continent. A hundred years is much in the life 
of men, little, except in effect, in the life of a nation. 

Father Junipero, who founded these missions, and 
under whose fostering care they reached such unex- 
ampled prosperity, reposes in the old church-yard at 
Monterey. His life reads like a romance. 

Church History. — It is related of him as illustrat- 
ing his fiery zeal, that, while on his way to found 
the mission of San Antonio de Padua, he caused the 
mules to be unpacked at a suitable place, and the 
bells hung on a tree. Seizing the rope he began to 
ring with all his might, regardless of the remonstra- 
tions of the other priests, shouting at the top of his 
voice, "Hear! hear, ye Gentiles! Come to the 
Holy Church! Come to the faith of Christ!" Such 
enthusiasm will win its way even among savages. 

FATHER JUNIPERO'S DEATH. 

At length having founded and successfully estab- 
lished six missions, and gathered into his fold over 
seven thousand wild people of the mountains and 
plains, the heroic Junipero began to feel that his 
end was drawing near. He was then seventy years 
old; fifty-three of these years he had spent in the 
active service of his master in the New World. Hav- 
ing fought the good fight and finished his illustrious 
course, the broken old man retired to the Mission 
of San Carlos at Monterey, gave the few remain- 
ing days of his life to a closer communion with 
God, received the last rites of the religion which he 
had advocated and illustrated so well, and on the 
29th of August, 1784, gently passed away. Tradi- 
tions of the "boy priest" still linger among the rem- 
nants of the tribes which were gathered under his 
care. 



CHAPTER IV. * 

THE MISSIONS OF ST. FRANCIS. 

Their Moral and Political Aspect — Domestic Economy — The Es- 
tablishments Described — Secular and Religious Occupations 
of the Neophytes — Wealth anil Productions — Liberation and 
Dispersion of the Indians — Final Decay, 

Certain writers upon the early history of Califor- 
nia, have taken an unfavorable view of the system 
under which the missionary friars achieved their 
wonderful success in reducing the wild tribes to a 
condition of semi-civilization. The venerable Fathers 
are accused of selfishness, avarice and tyranny, in 
compelling the Indians to submission, and forcibly 
restraining them from their natural liberty, and 
keeping them in a condition of servitude. Nothing 
could be more unjust and absurd. It were as well to 
say that it is cruel, despotic, and inhuman to tame 
and domesticate the wild cattle that roam the great 
plains of the continent. The system of the Fathers 
was only our modern reservation policy humanized 
and Christianized ; inasmuch as they not only fed and 
clothed the bodies of the improvident natives, but 
likewise cared for their imperishable souls. The cure 
of Indian souls was the primary object of the friar 
enthusiasts ; the work required of the Indians was 
of but few hours' duration, with long intervals of 
rest, and was only incidental to the one great and 
holy purpose of spiritual conversion and salvation. 
Surely, " No greater love hath any man than that 
he lay down his life for his friend;" and it is a cruel 
stretch of sectarian uncharity to charge selfishness 
and avarice to the account of self-devoting men who 
voluntarily went forth from the refinements, pleas- 
ures, and honors of'European civilization, to traverse 
the American wilderness in sandals, and with only 
one poor garment a year, in order to uplift the de- 
graded and savage tribes of Paganism from the 
regions of spiritual darkness, and lead them to the 
heights of salvation; nay, even to starve and die on 
the "coral strand" of California in helpless and 
deserted age. In 1838, the Rev. Father Sarria act- 
ually starved to death at the Mission of Soledad, 
after having labored there for thirty years. After 
the mission had been plundered through the perfidy 
of the Mexican Government, the old man, broken by 
age and faint with hunger, lingered in his little 
church with the few converts that remained, and one 
Sunday morning fell down and died of starvation 
before the altar of his life-long devotion. O, let not 
the Christian historian of California, who is yet to 
write for all time to come, stain and distort his 
pages . by such cruel and unworthy charges against 
the barefooted paladins of the Cross. 

To entirely comprehend the system and proceed- 
ings of the friars, it will be essential to know the 

*This and Chapters V, VI, VII, VIII, X, XI, XII, XIII, 
XIV and XV are taken from the History of Sacramento County, 
and Chapter IX from the History of San Joaquin County, these 
works being 'among those published by Thompson & West. 




o. 



to- 



H t 









THE MISSION OF ST. FRANCIS. 



21 



meaning of certain descriptive terras of their insti- 
tutions of settlement. These were — 
1st. Presidios. 
2d. Castillos. 
3d. Pueblos. 
4th. Missions. 

The presidios were the military garrisons, estab- 
lished along the coast for the defense of the country 
and the protection of the missionaries. Being the 
head-quarters of the military, they became the seats 
of local government for the different presidencies 
into which the country was divided. There were 
four of these presidios in Upper California — at San 
Diego, Santa Barbara, Monterey, and San Francisco. 
They were uniform in structure, consisting of adobe 
walls twelve or fourteen feet high, inclosing a square 
of three hundred feet on each side, defended at the 
angles by small bastions mounting eight twelve- 
pounder, bronze cannon. Within were the barracks, 
store-house, a church for the soldiers, and the com- 
mandant's residence. On the outside they were 
defended by a trench, twelve feet wide and six feet 
deep, and were entered by two gates, open during 
the day, and closed at night. The number of sol- 
diers assigned to each presidio was limited to two 
hundred and fifty ; but rarely were there so many 
at any one station. In addition to the duty of 
guarding the coast, small details of four and five 
men, under a sergeant, accompanied the Fathers 
when they went abroad to establish missions, or on 
other business. A certain number of troops were 
also assigned to each mission, to keep order and 
defend the place against the attacks of hostile na- 
tives. They dressed in buckskin uniform, which 
was supposed to be impervious to arrows, and the 
horses, too, were encased in leather armor, like those 
of the knights of old. 

The castillo was a covered battery, near the pre- 
sidio, which it was intended to guard. It was manned 
and mounted with a few guns, and though but a 
slight defense against a powerful enemy, it served to 
intimidate and keep off the feeble and timorous 
Gentiles. 

The pueblo was a town, inhabited originally by 
discharged soldiers who had served out their time at 
the presidios. It was separate from the presidio and 
mission, the lands having been granted by the Fa- 
thers. After a while other persons settled there, and 
sometimes the inhabitants of the pueblo, or independ- 
ent town, outnumbered those of the neighboring 
mission. There were only three of those pueblos in 
Upper California — Los Angeles, San Jose, and Bran- 
ciforte, the latter near Santa Cruz. San Francisco 
was not a pueblo. There were three classes of these 
settlements in later times — the pueblo proper, the 
presidiol, and the mission pueblo. The rancherias were 
King's lands, set apart for the use of the troops, to 
pasture their cattle and horses. 

The mission was the parent institution of the 
whole. There the natives resided, under religious 



treatment, and others were not allowed to inhabit 
the place except for a very brief time. This was to 
prevent the mingling of whites and natives, for it 
was thought that the former would contaminate and 
create discontent and disorder among the natives. 
The missions were all constructed on the same gen- 
eral plan. They were quadrangular, adobe struct- 
ures, two stories high, inclosing a court-yard orna- 
mented with fountains and trees ; the whole consist- 
ing of a church, Father's apartments, store-houses, 
barracks, etc. The four sides of the building were 
each about six hundred feet in length, one of which 
was partly occupied by the church. Within the 
quadrangle or court, a gallery or porch ran round 
the second story, opening upon the workshops, store- 
rooms, and other apartments. 

The entire management of each mission was under 
the care of the friars ; the elder attended to the 
interior, and the other the out-doors administration. 
One large apartment, called the monastery, was oc- 
cupied exclusively by Indian girls, under the watch- 
ful care of the matron, where they were instructed 
in such branches as were deemed necessary for then- 
future condition in life. They were not permitted to 
leave the monastery till old enough to be married. 
In the schools, such children as manifested adequate 
capacity, were taught vocal and instrumental music, 
the latter consisting of the flute, horn, and violin. In 
the various mechanical departments, the most in- 
genious and skillful were promoted to the foreman - 
ship. 

The daily routine of the establishment was usually 
as follows : At sunrise they all arose and repaired 
to the church, where after morning prayers, they 
assisted at the mass. The morning religious exer- 
cises occupied about an hour. Thence they went 
to breakfast, and afterwards to their respective em- 
ployments. At noon they returned to the mission, 
and spent two hours at dinner and in rest ; thence to 
work again, continuing until the evening angelus, 
about an hour before sundown. Then, all betook 
themselves to church, for evening devotions, which 
consisted usually in ordinary family-prayers and 
rosary, but on special occasions other devotional ex- 
ercises were added. After supper, they amused 
themselves in various games, sports, and dances till 
bedtime^ when the unmarried sexes were locked up 
in separate apartments till morning. Their diet con- 
sisted of good beef and mutton, with vegetables, 
wheaten cakes, puddings, and porridges, which they 
called atole and pinole. The men dressed in linen 
shirts, pants, and a blanket, the last serving for an 
overcoat ; the women had each two undergarments, 
a new gown, and a blanket every year. When the 
missions had grown rich, and in times of plenty, 
the Fathers distributed money and trinkets among 
the more exemplary, as rewards for good conduct. 

The Indians lived in small huts grouped around, 
a couple of hundred yards away from the main 
building ; some of these dwellings were made of 



22 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



adobes, and others were of rougb poles, conical in 
shape, and thatched with grasp, Mich as the people 
had been accustomed to in their wild state. Here 
the married Indians resided with their families. A 
tract of land, about fifteen miles square, was appor- 
tioned to each mission, for cultivation and pasturage. 
There is a wide distinction between the signification 
of the terms " Mis ion " and " Mission lands ;" the 
former referred to the houses, vineyards, and or- 
chards, in the immediate vicinity of the churches, 
and also included the cattle belonging to the es- 
tablishment; while mission lands, assigned for graz- 
ing and agriculture, were held only in fief, and were 
afterwards claimed by the Government — against the 
loud remonstrance of the Fathers, however. The 
missions were originally intended to be only tempo- 
raiy in duration. It was contemplated that in ten 
years from the time of their foundation they should 
cease, as it was then supposed that within that 
period the Indians would be sufficiently prepared to 
assume the position and character of citizens, and 
that the mission settlements would become pueblos, 
and the mission churches parish institutions, as in 
older civilizations; but having been neglected and 
undisturbed by the Spanish Government, they kept 
on in the old way for sixty years, the comfortable 
Fathers being in no hurry to insist on a change. 

From the foregoing, derived chiefly from Gleeson's 
valuable work, " History of the Catholic Church in 
California," it will be inferred that the good Fathers 
trained up their young neophytes in the way in 
which they should go. Alexander Forbes, and other 
historians, say that during church-time a sort of 
beadle went around with a long stick, and when he 
perceived a native inattentive to the devotions or 
inclined to misbehave, gave him or her an admonitory 
prod, or a rap over the cabesa I But all authorities, 
both Catholic and Protestant agree concerning the 
gentleness and humanity of the Fathers, who were 
absolute in authority and unlimited in the monarchy 
of their little kingdoms. Not that there was never 
any application of severe and necessary discipline; 
there were among the Indians, as well as in civilized 
society, certain vicious and turbulent ones, incapable 
of affection and without reverence for authority, 
and these were soundly whipped, as they no doubt 
deserved, »as such crooked disciples now are at 
San Quentin. Occasionally some discontented ones 
ran away to the hills, and these were pursued and 
brought back by the mission cavalry. They gen- 
erally returned without much trouble, as they had 
an idea that, having been baptized, something dread- 
ful would happen to them if they stayed away. 

While modern sentimentalists may lament that 
these poor people were thus deprived of their nat- 
ural liberty and kept in a condition of servitude, it 
must be admitted that their moral and physical 
situation was even better than the average poor in 
the European States at that time. Their yoke was 
easy, and their burdens were light; and if, in the 



Christian view of things, their spiritual welfare be 
taken into account, the Fathers, instead of being 
regarded as despots and task-masters, must be 
viewed as the substantial benefactors of the swarthy 
race. 

The wealth created by some of the missions was 
enormous. At its era of greatest prosperity, the 
Mission of San Gabriel, founded in 1771, numbered 
three thousand Indians, one hundred and five thou- 
sand cattle, twenty thousand horses, forty thousand 
sheep; produced, annually, twenty thousand bushels 
of grain, and five hundred barrels of wine and 
brandy. Attached to this mission were seventeen 
extensive ranches, farmed by the Indians, and pos- 
sessing two hundred yoke of oxen. Some of the old 
fig and olive trees are still bearing fruit, and one old 
Indian woman still survives, who is said to have 
reached the incredible age of one hundred and forty 
years. In 1836, the number of Indians at the 
Mission of Upper California was upwards of thirty 
thousand. The number of live-stock was nearly a 
million, including four hundred thousand cattle, 
sixty thousand horses, and three hundred thousand 
sheep, goats, and swine. One hundred thousand 
cattle were slaughtered annually, their hides and 
tallow producing a revenue of nearly a million of 
dollars, a revenue of equal magnitude being derived 
from other articles of export. There were rich 
and extensive gardens and orchards attached 
to the missions, ornamented and enriched with a 
variety of European and tropical fruit trees, includ- 
ing bananas, oranges, olives, and figs, to which were 
added productive and highly cultivated vineyards, 
rivaling the richest grape-fields of Europe. When 
the missions were secularized and ruined by the 
Mexican Government, there were above a hundred 
thousand piasters in the treasury of San Gabriel. 

But, evil times were coming. In 1826, the Mexi- 
can Congress passed an Act for the liberation of the 
mission Indians, and the demoralization and dis- 
persion of the people soon ensued. Eight years 
thereafter, the number of Christian Indians had 
diminished from thirty thousand six hundred and 
fifty, to four thousand four hundred. Of the eight 
hundred thousand head of live-stock, only sixty- 
three thousand remained. Everything went to rack 
and ruin, and what had been a land of abounding 
life and generous plenty, reverted to silence and 
desolation. At the Mission of St. John Capistrano, 
of the two thousand Christian population, only one 
hundred remained; of the seventy thousand cattle, 
but five hundred were left; of the two thousand 
horses, only one hundred survived, and of the ten 
thousand sheep, not one remained. 

And then, after sixty years of cheerful and suc- 
cessful labor, and from happy abundance in which 
they had hoped to die at last, went forth the down- 
cast Fathers, one after another; some in sorrow to 
the grave, some to other and rougher fields of mis- 
sionary labor, and others to be dispersed among the 



DOWNFALL OF THE OLD MISSIONS. 



23 



widespread retreats of the Brothers of St. Francis. 
And the swarthy neoplrytes — the dark-eyed maidens 
of San Gabriel, whither went they? Back to the 
savage defiles of the mountains, down to the depths 
of barbarism, to wander in the lonely desert, to 
shiver in the pitiless storm, and to perish at last 
under the ponderous march of a careless and unfeel- 
ing civilization. 



CHAPTEB V. 



DOWNFALL OF THE OLD MISSIONS. 

Results of Mexican Rule — Confiscation of the Pious Fund — 
Revolution Begun — Events of the Colonial Rebellion — The 
Americans Appear and Settle Things — Annexation at Last. 

In 1822, Mexico declared independence of Spain, 
and immediately the old missions began to decline. 
Four years afterwards the Christian Indians were 
removed from under the control of the Fathers, 
their manumission having been ordered by the 
Mexican Government. They were to receive cer- 
tain portions of land, and to be entirely independent 
of the friars. The annual salaries of the Fathers, 
which had been derived from interest on the Pious 
Fund, were withheld and appropriated by the Gov- 
ernment, and soon after the fund itself was confis- 
cated by the Mexican Congress, and used for the 
purposes of state. The Pious Fund was the aggre- 
gated donations of the Catholic world for the main- 
tenance of missions in Lower and Upper California, 
the interest being about fifty thousand dollars annu- 
ally, which went for the support of the Fathers. 
This large sum, principal and interest, amounting in 
1817 to one million two hundred and seventy-three 
thousand dollars, the beggarly Mexican Government 
meant to steal. Professor Gleeson, writing in 
defense of the Fathers, makes out a fearful bill of 
damages against the perfidious Government, amount- 
ing to no less than twelve millions two hundred 
thousand dollars, which will probably never be paid 
by that rather shaky republic. The missions were 
thus practically ruined. Following the rapacious 
example set by Government, the white settlers laid 
violent hands on the stock and lands belonging to 
the missions, and, having returned to their mountain 
fastnesses, the Indians instituted a predatory war- 
fare against the settlers, carrying off their goods, 
cattle, and sometimes their wives and children. 
The whites retaliating in kind, villages were de- 
stroyed, and the whole country, highlands and low- 
lands, was kept in a state of apprehension, rapine, 
and spoliation, resembling the condition of Scotland 
in the times of the Jacobites. 

In the meantime in 1836, a revolt against the Mex- 
ican Government was projected by the white settlers 
who seized upon Monterey, the capital, and declared 
the country independent. Thirty American rifle- 
men, under Isaac Graham from Tennessee, and sixty 
mounted Californians, under General Castro, com- 
posed the entire insurgent army, Alvarado being the 



generalissimo. They advanced on and took the 
territorial capital in November, Governor Gutierrez 
and his seventy men having valiantly shut them- 
selves up in the fort, where they ignominiously sur- 
rendered at the very first gun. .. Gutierrez with his 
officials was deported to Lower California, and Alva- 
rado had himself appointed Governor in his stead. 
Bon M. G. Vallejo was appointed military Command- 
ant-General, and Bon Jose Castro was created Pre- 
fect of Police. The country was then formally de- 
clared a free and independent State, providing that 
in the case the then existing Central Government of 
Mexico should be overthrown and a federal constitu- 
tion adopted in its stead, California should enter the 
federation with the other States. The people of Los 
Angeles and Santa Barbara refused to acknowledge 
the new territorial administration, but Alvarado 
marched upon Los Angeles, where he was met by 
Castello, and instead of a bloody battle, it was agreed 
that Alvarado should recognize the existing Central 
Government of Mexico, and be proclaimed political 
chief of California, pro tern., while Castello was to 
proceed to Mexico as deputy to Congress, with a sal- 
ary of three thousand piasters a year. The Govern- 
ment of Mexico declined to confirm the arrangement, 
and appointed Bon Carlos Carillo Governor of the 
Territory. Alvarado again went to war, and with a 
small company of Americans, and Californians, 
marched against Carillo, the new Governor at Santa 
Barbara. The valiant Carillo, having a wholesome 
dread of the American sharp-shooters, retired from 
the field without a battle, leaving Alvarado master 
of the situation. The pusillanimous character of the 
then existing Mexican Government is illustrated by 
the fact that Alvarado was confirmed as Constitu- 
tional Governor of California, notwithstanding he 
had been the leader of the rebellion. 

Then ensued a succession of spoliations which 
destroyed the laborious enterprise of sixty years, and 
left the old missions in melancholy ruins. 

Alvarado bestowed upon his English and Ameri- 
can followers large grants of land, money and stock 
confiscated from the missions. Graham, the captain 
of the band, obtained a great landed estate and two 
hundred mules. To the commandant, General Val- 
lejo, fell the goods and chattels of the missions of 
San Bafael and Solano; Castro, the Prefect of Mont- 
erey, received the property of the San Juan Bau- 
tista, while Governor Alvarado himself appropriated 
the rich spoil of the missions of Carmelo and Soledad.* 

In the meantime a conspiracy against Alvarado 

* Authorities differ on this matter. Some well-informed per- 
sons say that Alvarado had promised Bates, and others, large 
tracts of land, if they would assist him in establishing himself as 
ruler; that after succeeding in his ambitious desires, he turned 
traitor to his friends, and undertook to destroy them on the pre- 
tence of a contemplated insurrection. There was no fair fight. 
Alvarado captured the men, over a hundred in number, by send- 
ing armed parties to their bomes in the night, or by luring 
them to Monterey on pretence of important business, and put- 
ting chains on them as fast as they came into his presence, 
otherwise they would have made short work of deposing him. — 
[Editor. 



24 



EISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



was set on foot by certain of his English and Amer- 
ican compatriots, the object being the admission of 
California to the American Union. The conspirators 
were forty-six in number, twenty-five English and 
twenty-one Americans, under command of Graham. 
Alvarado soon heard of the design, and sent a party 
of soldiers, under Castro, to Monterey, surprised tbe 
revolutionists in their hut, and poured in a volley of 
musketry disabling many of them; the balance were 
taken prisoners, and afterwards deported to San Bias 
and thence to Topic, where they were treated as con- 
victs. The Americans and English in California ap- 
pealed to the Mexican Government, and President 
Bustamente became alarmed at the danger of war 
with England and the United States, and ordered 
the exiled prisoners to be sent back to California, 
and that they should be indemnified for their loss of 
time at the rate of three piasters a day. The re- 
turned prisoners, immediately on their arrival, re- 
sumed their design with greater energy than before, 
having determined to be revenged on Castro and 
Alvarado for the outrages they had inflicted. 

In 1841 other Americans arrived, and the revolu- 
tionary party was considerably increased. Alvarado 
demanded reinforcements from Mexico, but the only 
assistance he received was that of three hundred 
convicts from the Mexican prisons. At this juncture, 
Santa Ana, the new President, removed Governor 
Alvarado from office, appointing Micheltorena in his 
stead, and when the latter arrived, Monterey, the 
capital, had previously fallen into the hands of the 
American Commodore Jones, although then in the 
possession of the Mexicans. Commodore^Catesby 
Jones, having heard that war had been declared be- 
tween the United States and Mexico, hastened to 
Monterey, took possession of the city, and hoisted 
the American colors; but learning his serious mistake 
on the following day, he lowered his flag and made 
a becoming apology. This extraordinary incident 
occurred on the 20th of October, 1842, and it was 
then obvious that the distracted country must soon 
fall into the hands of the United States, or some 
other foreign nation. 

One of the first acts of the new Governor, Mich- 
eltorena, was the restoration of the missions to the 
friars, after a turbulent interregnum of six years. 
But this act of policy and justice came too late; the 
missions were ruined beyond the possibility of resus- 
citation. The Indians had been dispersed, many of 
them living by brigandage, and others had become 
wandering vagabonds. After two years' exertion by 
the Fathers things began to improve; some of the 
Indians had returned, and the lands were being re- 
cultivated, when the Government again interfered, 
and ordered Governor Pio Pico, in 1845, to dispose 
of the missions either by sale or rental, to the white 
settlers. Thus, at length, the last of the property 
which the Fathers had created by sixty years of 
patient labor, passed into the possession of private 
individuals; many of the Fathers were reduced to 



extreme poverty, humiliation, and distress, and the 
missions went down, never to rise again. The de- 
struction of the missions was almost immediately 
succeeded by the war between the United States 
and Mexico, and the long vexed territory passed to 
the American Union. 



CHAPTER VI. 

PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE. 

Extent of the Mission Lands — Varieties of Product — Agricul- 
tural Implements and means of Working — A Primitive Mill 
— Immense Herds and Value of Cattle — The First Native 
Shop. 

Up to the time of the American conquest the pro- 
ductive lands of California were chiefly in the hands 
of the missionaries. Each of tbe missions included 
about fifteen miles square, and the boundaries were 
generally equi-distant. As the science of agriculture 
was then in a very primitive condition in Spain, the 
monks of California could not be expected to know 
much about scientific farming. They knew nothing 
about the utility of fallows, or the alternation of 
crops, and their only mode of renovating exhausted 
soil, was to let it lie idle and under the dominion of 
native weeds, until it was thought capable of bear- 
ing crops again. Land being so abundant, there 
was no occasion for laborious or expensive processes 
of recuperation. 

The grains mostly cultivated were Indian corn, 
wheat, barley, and a small bean called frijol, which 
was in general use throughout Spanish America. 
The beans, when ripe, were fried in lard, and much 
esteemed by all ranks of people. Indian corn was 
the bread-staple, and was cultivated in rows or 
drills. The plow used was a very primitive affair. 
It was composed of two pieces of wood; the main 
piece, formed from a crooked limb of a tree of the 
proper shape, constituting both sole and handle. It 
had no mould-board, or other means for turning a 
furrow, and was only capable of scratching the sur- 
face of the ground. A small share, fitted to the 
point of the sole, was the only iron about the im- 
plement. The other piece was a long beam, like 
the tongue of a wagon, reaching to the yoke of the 
cattle by which the plow was drawn. It consisted 
of a rough sapling, with the bark taken off, fixed 
into the main piece, and connected by a small up- 
right on which it was to slide up or down, and was 
fixed in position by two wedges. "When the plow- 
man desired to plow deep, the forward end of the 
tongue was lowered, and in this manner the depth 
of the furrow was regulated. This beam passed 
between the two oxen, a pin was put through the 
end projecting from the yoke, and then the agri- 
cultural machine was ready to run. The plowman 
walked on one side, holding the one handle, or stilt, 
with his right hand, and managing the oxen with 
the other. The yoke was placed on the top of the 
cattle's heads close behind the horns, tied firmly to 






PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE. 



25 



the roots and to the forehead by thongs, so that, 
instead of drawing by the shoulders and neck, the 
oxen dragged the plow by their horns and fore- 
heads. When so harnessed the poor beasts were in 
a very deplorable condition; they could not move 
their heads up, down, or sidcwise, went with their 
noses turned up, and every jolt of the plow knocked 
them about, and seemed to give them great pain. 
Only an ancient Spaniard could devise such a 
contrivance for animal torture. When Alexander 
Forbes suggested to an old Spaniard that perhaps 
it might be better to yoke the oxen by the neck and 
shoulders, " What!" said the old man, "can you sup- 
pose that Spain, which has always been known as 
the mother of the sciences, can be mistaken on 
that point?" 

The oxen were yoked to the carts in the same 
manner, having to bear the weight of the load 
on the top of their heads, the most disadvantageous 
mechanical point of the whole body. The ox-cart 
was composed of .a bottom frame of clumsy con- 
struction, with a few upright bars connected by 
smaller ones at the top. When used for carry- 
ing grain, it was lined with canes or bulrushes. The 
pole was large, and tied to the yoke in the same 
manner as with the plow, so that every jerk of the 
cart was torture to the oxen. The wheels had no 
spokes, and were composed of three pieces of timber, 
the middle piece hewn out of a log, of sufficient size 
to form the nave and middle of the wheel, all in 
one; the middle piece was of a length equal to the 
diameter of the wheel, and rounded at the ends to 
arcs of the circumference. The other two pieces 
were of timber naturally bent, and joined to the 
sides of the middle piece by keys of wood grooved 
into the ends of the pieces which formed the wheel. 
The whole was then made circular, and did not 
contain a particle of iron, not even so much as a nail. 

From the rude construction of the plow, which 
was incapable of turning a furrow, the ground was 
imperfectly broken by scratching over, crossing, and 
re-crossing several times; and although four or five 
crossings were sometimes given to a field, it was 
found impossible to eradicate the weeds. "It was 
no uncommon thing," says Forbes in 1835, "to see, 
on some of the large maize estates in Mexico, as 
many as two hundred plows at work together. As 
the plows are equal on both sides, the plowmen 
have only to begin at one side of the field and follow 
one another up and down, as many as can be em- 
ployed together without interfering in turning round 
at the end, which they do in succession, like ships 
tacking in a line of battle, and so proceed down the 
same side as they come up." 

Harrows were unknown, the wheat and barley 
being brushed in by a branch of a tree. Sometimes 
a heavy log was drawn over the field, on the plan 
of a roller, save that it did not roll, but was dragged 
so as to carry a part of the soil over the seeds. 
Indian corn was planted in furrows or ruts drawn 



about five feet apart, the seed being deposited by 
hand, from three to five grains in a place, which 
were slightly covered by the foot, no hoes being 
used. The sowing of maize, as well as all other 
grains in Upper California, commenced in Novem- 
ber, as near as possible to the beginning of the rainy 
season. The harvest was in July and August. 
Wheat was sown broadcast, and in 1835 it was 
considered equal in quality to that produced at the 
Cape of Good Hope, and had begun to attract at- 
tention in Europe. All kinds of grain were threshed 
at harvest time, without stacking. In 1831, the 
whole amount of grain raised in Upper California, 
according to the mission records, was 46,202 fanegas 
— the fanega being equal to 2? English bushels.' 
Wheat and barley were then worth two dollars the 
fanega; maize, a dollar and a half; the crop of that 
year at the several missions being worth some eighty- 
six thousand dollars. 

The mills for grinding grain consisted of an up- 
right axle, to the lower end of which was fixed a 
horizontal water-wheel under the building, and to 
the upper end a millstone. As there was no inter- 
mediate machinery to increase the velocity of the 
stone it could make oidy the same number of revo- 
lutions as the water-wheel, so that the work of 
grinding a grist was necessarily a process of time. 
The water-wheel was fearfully and wonderfully 
made. Forbes described it as a set of cucharas, or 
gigantic spoons, set around its periphery in place of 
floats. They were made of strong pieces of timber, 
in the shape of spoons, with the handles inserted in 
mortises in the outer surface of the wheel, the bowl 
of the spoons toward the water, which impinged 
upon them with nearly its whole velocity. Rude as 
the contrivance was, it was exceedingly powerful — 
a sort of primitive turbine. There were only three 
of these improved mills in the country in 1835, and 
the possession of such a rare piece of machinery was 
no small boast for the simple-hearted Fathers, so 
far away from the j>rogressive mechanical world. 
It was not a primitive California invention, how- 
ever, as Sir Walter Scott, in his romance of " The 
Pirate," describes a similar apparatus formerly in 
use in the Shetland Islands.* 

Before the advent of foreigners, neither potatoes 
nor green vegetables were cultivated as articles of 
food. Hemp was raised to some extent, and flax 
grew well, but its culture was discontinued for want 
of machinery for manufacture. Pasturage was the 
principal pursuit in all Spanish colonies in America. 
The immense tracts of wild land afforded unlimited 
ranges, but few men and little labor were required, 
and the pastoral state was the most congenial to 
the people. The herds were very large; in the 
four jurisdictions of San Francisco, Monterey, Santa 

*This form of water-wheel was common in the Eastern States 
during the earlier part of this century, and was known as the 
tub or spur wheel. Even the mounting of the mill-stones was 
in the manner described. — [Editor. 



2U 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Barbara, and San Diego, there were in L836 three 
hundred thousand black- cattle, thirty-two thousand 
horses, twenty-eight thousand mules, and one hun- 
dred and fifty-three thousand sheep. Great num- 
bers of horses ran wild, and these were hunted and 
killed to prevent their eating the grass. There was 
hardly such a thing as butter or cheese in use, but- 
ter being, in general, an abomination to a Spaniard. 

In the earlier times immense droves of young bulls 
were sent to Mexico for beef. The cattle being half- 
wild, it was necessary to catch them with the lasso, 
a process which need not be here described. The 
process of milking the cows was peculiar. They first 
let the calf suck for a "while, when the dairyman 
'stole up on the other side, and, while the calf 
was still sucking, procured a little of the milk. 
They had an idea that the cow would not " give 
down " milk if the calf was taken away from her. 
The sheep were of a bad breed, with coarse wool; and 
swine received little attention. The amount of the 
annual exports in the first few years after the open- 
ing of the ports to foreign vessels, was estimated at 
thirty thousand hides and seven thousand quintals 
of tallow; with small cargoes of wheat, wine, raisins, 
olives, etc., sent to the Russian settlements and San 
Bias. Hides were worth two dollars each, and tallow 
eight dollars per quintal. Afterwards the exporta- 
tion of hides and tallow was greatly increased, and 
it is said that after the Fathers had become con- 
vinced that they would have to give up the mission 
lands to the Government, they caused the slaughter 
of one hundred thousand cattle in a single year, for 
their hides and tallow alone. And who could blame 
them? The cattle were theirs. Notwithstanding- 
all this immense revenue these enthusiasts gave it 
all to the church, and themselves went away in 
penury, and, as has been related heretofore, one of 
them actually starved to death. 

In 1836 the value of a fat ox or bull in Upper Cali- 
fornia was five dollars; a cow, five; a saddle-horse, 
ten; a mare, five; a sheep, two; and a mule ten 
dollars. 

Thefirst ship ever constructed on the eastern shores 
of the Pacific was built by the Jesuit Father, Ugarte, 
at Loreto, in 1719. Being in want of a vessel to sur- 
vey the coast of the peninsula, and there being none 
available nearer than New Spain or the Philippine 
Islands, the enterprising friar determined to build 
one. After traveling two hundred miles through the 
mountains suitable timber was at last found, in a 
marshy country; but how to get it to the coast was 
the great question; this was considered impossible by 
all but the stubborn old friar. When the party 
returned to Loreto, Father Ugarte's ship in the 
mountains became a ghostly joke among his brother 
friars. But, not to be beaten and laughed down, 
Ugarte made the necessary preparations, returned 
to the mountains, felled the timber, dragged it two 
hundred miles to the coast, and built a handsome 
ship, which he appropriately named The Triumph of 



the Gross. The first voyage of this historic ves- 
sel was to La Pa/,, two hundred miles south of Loreto, 
where a mission was to be founded. 



OB APTER VII. 



Sir Francis Drake's Discoveries — The Fabulous Straits of 
Auian — Arctic Weather in .June — Russian Invasion — 
Native Animals — Various facts and Events. 

For many years it was supposed and maintained 
in England that Sir Francis Drake was the original 
discoverer of San Francisco bay; but it is now con- 
sidered certain that he never found the entrance to 
that inland sea. Drake was a buccaneer, and, in 
1579, was in the South Seas looking for Spanish 
ships to plunder, under the pretext of existing war 
between England and Spain. He had two other pur- 
poses to subserve in behalf of the English Govern- 
ment; to discover a new route from Europe to the 
Indies, and to find a new territory northward 
that would rival the Spanish-American possessions 
in natural wealth. A rich trade had sprung up 
between the Philippine Islands and Spain; every 
year a Spanish galleon from the Malayan Archipel- 
ago crossed the Pacific to Acapulco, freighted with 
the richest merchandise, and this, Captain Drake 
was on the watch for, and did eventually capture. 

At that time navigators universally believed that 
the American and Asiatic continents were separated 
only by the Straits of Anian, which were sup- 
posed to lead eastward to the Atlantic, somewhere 
about Newfoundland. This long-sought northwest- 
ern passage Drake was in search of. In the autumn 
of 1578 Drake brought his little fleet of three ves- 
sels through the Straits of Magellan, and found the 
Pacific ocean in a stormy, rage, and, having been 
drifted about Cape Horn a couple of months, he con- 
cluded that the continent was there at an end; that 
the Atlantic and Pacific oceans there united their 
waters; and he very naturally came to the conclu- 
sion that a similar juncture of seas would be found 
at the north. Having captured the great Spanish 
galleon, and finding himself overburdened with rich 
treasure, Drake wanted to return to England. He 
did not care to encounter the stormy waters of 
Cape Horn, and expecting to find a hostile Spanish 
fleet awaiting him at the Straits of Magellan, he 
determined to make his way home by a new and 
hitherto unknown route, the north-eastern passage. 
On the 17th of June, 1579, he entered what the his- 
torian of the expedition called a "faire, good bay 
within thirty-eight degrees of latitude of the line.'' 
That exactly corresponds with what is now known 
as Drake's Bay, behind Point Reyes. There, 
although it was in the month of June, his men " com- 
plained grievously of the nipping cold." Drake 
having given up the perilous north-eastern passage 
by way of the fabulous Straits of Anian, sailed away 
for England by way of the Philippine Islands and 



MISCELLANEOUS FACTS AND EVENTS. 



27 



the Cape of Good Hope. It is probable that while 
off the north-west coast, Drake saw the snowy 
crest of Mount Shasta and some of the Oregon 
peaks, and concluded that he had got near enough 
to the North Pole. At any rate, it is clear enough 
that he never passed through the Golden Gate, or 
rested on the magnificent waters of San Francisco 
bay. 

The Eeverend Fletcher, chaplain of Drake's expe- 
dition, must have been a terrible old story-teller. He 
says that when off the coast of Oregon, in the 
month of June, " The rigging of the ship was frozen 
stiff, and the meat froze as it was taken off the 
fire." Moreover, saith the same veracious parson, 
"There is no part of earth here to be taken up, 
wherein there is not a reasonable quantity of gold 
and silver." These arctic regions and golden treas- 
ures were found along the ocean shore between San- 
Francisco and Portland. 

Another English buccaneer, Thomas Cavendish, 
appeared on the Pacific coast in 1586, and plundered 
the Philippine galleon of 122,000 pesos in gold, 
besides a valuable cargo of merchandise. The pirate 
ran the vessel into the nearest port, set her on fire, 
liberated the crew and made his escape to England. 

It is supposed that one of the extensive Smith 
family was the first white man who crossed the 
Sierra Nevada from the States, but this fact is not 
altogether certain. In the Summer of 1825 Jedediah 
S. Smith, the head of the American Fur Company, 
led a party of trappers and Indians from their camp, 
on Green river, across the Sierra Nevada and into 
the Tulare valley, which they reached in July. The 
party trapped for beaver from the Tulare to the 
American river, and had their camp near the pres- 
ent site of Folsom. On a second trip Smith led his 
company further south, into the Mojave country, on 
the Colorado, where all except himself and two com- 
panions were killed by the Indians. These three 
made their way to the Mission of San Gabriel, near 
Los Angeles, which they reached in December, 1826. 
In the following year Smith and his party left the 
Sacramento valley for the settlements on the Colum- 
bia river, but at the mouth of the Umpqua they 
were attacked by Indians, and all killed except 
Smith and two Irishmen, who, after much suffering, 
reached Fort Vancouver. Smith returned to St. 
Louis in 1840, and the following year was killed by 
Indians, while leading an expedition to Santa Fe. 
His history is no less adventurous and romantic 
than that of the famous Captain John Smith, of 
Virginia. 

In 1807 the Eussians first appeared on the coast of 
California. The Czar's ambassador to Japan came 
down from Sitka, ostensibly for supplies, and 
attempted to establish communication between the 
Eussian and Spanish settlements. The better to 
effect his purpose he became engaged in marriage 
with the Commandante's daughter, at San Francisco, 
but on his way back to obtain the sanction of his 



Government he was thrown from his horse and 
killed. The lady assumed the habit of a nun, and 
mourned for her lover until death. In 1812 a hun- 
dred Eussians and as many Kodiac Indians came 
down from their northern settlements and squatted 
at Bodega, where they built a fort and maintained 
themselves by force of arms until 1841, when they 
sold the establishment to Captain Sutter and disap- 
peared. 

In 1822 Mexico declared her independence ot 
Spain, and established a separate empire. When the 
Indians at San Diego heard of it they held a great 
feast, and commenced the ceremonies by burning 
their chief alive. .When the missionax"ies remon- 
strated, the logical savages said: "Have you not 
done the same in Mexico ? You say your King 
was not good, and you killed him; well, our cap- 
tain was not good, and we burned him. If the new 
one is bad we will burn him too." 

The State of California was originally divided 
into twenty-seven counties. The derivation of the 
several terms adopted is given by General Vallejo: 

San Diego (Saint James) takes its name from the 
old town, three miles from the harbor, discovered by 
Viscaino, in 1602. 

Los Angeles county was named from the city 
(Ciudad de Los Angeles) founded by order of the 
Viceroy of New Spain, in 1780. 

Santa Barbara was named after the town estab- 
lished in 1780 to protect the five adjacent missions. 

San Luis Obispo, after its principal town, the site 
of a misson founded in 1772 by Junipero Serra and 
Jose Cavalier. 

Monterey, after the chief town, which was so 
named by Viscaifio in honor of his friend and patron, 
the Viceroy, Count of Monterey. 

Santa Cruz (the Holy Cross) was named from the 
mission on the north side of the bay. 

San Francisco, named in honor of the friars' 
patron saint. 

Santa Clara, named from the mission established 
there in 1777. 

Contra Costa (the opposite coast) is the natural 
designation of the country across the bay from San 
Francisco. 

Marin county, named after a troublesome chief 
whom an exploring expedition encountered in 1815. 
Marin died at the San Eafael Mission in 1834. 

Sonoma, named after a noted Indian, who also 
gave name to his tribe. The word means " Valley 
of the Moon." 

Solano, the name of a chief, who borrowed it from 
his missionary friend, Father Solano. 

Yolo, a corruption of an Indian word yoloy, sig- 
nifying a place thick with rushes; also, the name of 
a tribe of Indians on Cache creek. 

Napa, named after a numerous tribe in that re- 
gion, which was nearly exterminated by small-pox 
in 1838. 



MH 



1'S 



BISTORT? OF AMADOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Mendocino, Darned by the discoverer after Mcii- 
doza, Viceroy of New Spain. 

Sacramento (the Sacrament). Moraga gave the 
main river the name of Jesus Maria, and the prin- 
cipal branch he called Sacramento. Afterwards, 
the great river came to be known as the Sacra- 
mento, and the branch, Feather river. 

El Dorado, the appropriate name of the district 
where gold was discovered in 1848. 

Sutter county, named in honor of the world- 
renowned pioneer, John A. Sutter. 

Yuba, a corruption of Uva, a name given a branch 
of Feather river in 1824 by an exploring party, on 
account of the great quantities. of wild grape vines 
growing on its banks. 

Butte, the common French term for a mound, in 
allusion to three symmetrical hills in that county; 
so named by a party of the Hudson Bay Company 
hunters. 

Colusa, from Coluses, the name of a numerous 
tribe on the west side of the Sacramento. Meaning 
of the word is unknown. 

Shasta, the name of a tribe who lived at the base 
of the lofty peak of same name. 

Calaveras, so named by Captain Moraga, on ac- 
count of an immense number of skulls in the vicinity 
of a stream, which he called "Calaveras, or the 
River of Skulls." This is the reputed site of a terri- 
ble battle between the mountain and valley Indians, 
over the fishing question. 

San Joaquin, after the river, so named by Captain 
Moraga, in honor of the legendary father of the 
Yirgin . 

Tuolumne, a corruption of an Indian word, signi- 
fying a cluster of stone wigwams. 

Mariposa signifies butterfly. So called by a party 
of hunters, who camped on the river in 1807, and 
observed the trees gorgeous with butterflies. 

Trinity, called after the bay of that name, which 
was discovered on the anniversary of Trinity Fes- 
tival. 

When first visited by the Spaniards, California 
abounded in wild animals, some of which are now 
extinct. One of these was called Berendo by the 
Spaniards, and by the natives, Taye. "It is," says 
Father Yenegas, " about the bigness of a calf a 
year and a half old, resembling it in figure, except 
the head, which is like that of a deer, and the 
horns very thick, like those of a ram. Its hoof 
is large, round, and cloven, and its tail short." 
This was the Argali, a species intermediate between 
the goat and the sheep, living in large herds along 
the bases of the mountains; supposed to be a variety 
of the Asiatic argali, so plentiful in Northern and 
Central Asia. In his journey from Monterey to San 
Francisco, Father Serra met with herds of immense 
deer, which the men mistook for European cattle, 
and wondered how they got there. Several deer 
were shot, whose horns measured eleven feet from 
tip to tip. Another large animal, which the natives 



called cibolo, the bison, inhabited the great plains, 
but was eventually driven off by the vast herds of 
domestic cattle. When Langsdorff's ship was lying 
in the Bay of San Francisco in 1804, sea-otter were 
swimming about so plentifully as to be nearly un- 
heeded. The Indians caught them in snares, or 
killed them with slicks. Perpuse estimated that 
the Presidency of Monterey alone could supply 
ten thousand otter skins annually. They were worth 
twenty dollars and upwards apiece. Beechey found 
birds in astonishing numbers and variety, but their 
plumage was dingy looking, and very few of them 
could sing respectably. 

The name California was first given to the Lower 
Peninsula in 1536, and was afterwards applied to 
the coast territory as far north as Cape Mendocino. 
There has been much learned speculation concerning 
the probable derivation of the word, but no satis- 
factory conclusion has been l'eached. The word is 
arbitrary, derived from some expression of the In- 
dians. 

The province, as it formerly existed under the 
Viceroys, was divided into two parts; Peninsular, 
or Lower and Old California, and Continental, or 
Upper and New, the line of separation running near 
the 32d parallel of latitude, from the northern ex- 
tremity of the Gulf of California, to the Pacific ocean. 

The Gulf of California — called also the Sea of Cor- 
tez, and the Vermilion Sea — is a great arm of the 
Pacific, which joins that ocean under the 23d par- 
allel of latitude, and thence extends north-westward 
inland about seven hundred miles, where it receives 
the waters of the Colorado and Gila rivers. It is 
a hundred miles wide at the mouth, widens further 
north, and still further on contracts in width, till its 
shores become the banks of the Colorado. The 
Peninsular, or California side of the Gulf, was for- 
merly celebrated for the size and beauty of its 
pearls, which were found in oysters. They were 
obtained with great difficulty, from the crevices at 
the bottom, by Indian divers, who had to go down 
twenty or thirty feet, and frequently were drowned, 
or devoured by sharks. In 1825, eight vessels en- 
gaged in the fishing, obtained, altogether, five 
pounds of pearls, which were worth about ten thou- 
sand dollars. Sometimes, however, a single mag- 
nificent pearl was found, which compensated for 
years of labor and disappointment. Some of the 
richest in the royal regalia of Spain, were found on 
the California gulf. 

Peninsular, or Lower California, lying between 
the gulf and the ocean, is about 130 miles in breadth 
where it joins the continent at the north, under the 
32d parallel, and nearly in the same latitude as 
Savannah in Georgia. Thence it runs south-east- 
ward, diminishing in breadth and terminating in 
two points, the one at Cape San Lucas, in nearly the 
same latitude as Havana, the other at Cape Palmo, 
60 miles north-east, at the entrance of the gulf. 

Continental California extends along the Pacific 



"KS 




H I RAM C. MEEK 

(AT 93Y'? of AGE ) 



THE AMERICAN CONQUEST. 



29 



from the 32d parallel, where it joins the peninsula, 
about seven hundred miles, to the Oregon line, 
nearly in the latitude of Boston. The Mexican 
Government considered the 42d parallel of latitude 
as the northern line of California, according to a 
treaty with the United States in 1828. 

Greenhow, writing in 1844, says: "The only mine 
as yet discovered in Upper California is one of 
gold, situated at the foot of the great westernmost 
range of mountains, on the west, at the distance 
of twenty-five miles from Angeles, the largest 
town in the country. It is said to be of extra- 
ordinary richness." 

The animals originally found in California were 
buffalo, deer, elk, bear, wild hogs, wild sheep, 
ocelots, pumas, beavers, foxes, and many others, 
generally of a species different from those on the 
Atlantic side. Cattle and horses were introduced 
from Mexico, and soon overrun the country, and 
drove out the buffalo and other of the large animals. 
One of the worst scourges of the country was the 
chapul, a kind of grasshopper, which appeared in 
clouds after a mild winter, and ate up every green 
thing. 

Little or no rain fell during the years 1840 and 
1841, in which time the inhabitants were reduced to 
the verge of starvation. 

It is a remarkable fact, that the Golden Gate is 
nearly in the same latitude as the entrance of Chesa- 
peake bay and the Straits of Gibraltar. 

In 1844, the town of Monterey, the capital -of 
Upper California, was a wretched collection of mud, 
or adobe houses, containing about two hundred in- 
habitants. The castle and fort consisted 'of mud 
walls, behind which were a few worthless guns, good 
for nothing but to scare the Indians. 

In 1838, the Russian settlements at Ross and 
Bodega contained eight or nine hundred inhab- 
itants, stockaded forts, mills, shops, and stables, and 
the farms produced great abundance of grain, vege- 
tables, butter, and cheese, which were shipped to 
Sitka. The lazy Spaniards were bitterly hostile to 
the industrious Muscovites, but durst not meddle 
with them. At last, having maintained their in- 
dependent colony thirty-one years, they sold out to 
Captain Sutter, and quietly moved away. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE AMERICAN CONQUEST. 

Fremont and the Bear Flag — Rise and Progress of the Revolu- 
tion — Commodores Sloat, Stockton, and Shubrick — Castro 
and Flores Driven out — Treaty of Peace — Stockton and 
'Kearney Quarrel — Fremont Arrested, etc. 

In the Spring of 1845, John C. Fremont, then a 
brevet-captain in the corps of United States Topo- 
graphical Engineers, was dispatched on a third 
tour of exploration across the continent, and was 
charged to find a better route from the Rocky 
Mountains to the mouth of the Columbia river. 



This was his ostensible business, but there is reason 
to believe that he had other and private instructions 
from the Government concerning the acquisition 
of California, in view of the pending war with 
Mexico. Fremont reached the frontiers of Cali- 
fornia in March, 1846, halted his company a hun- 
dred miles from Monterey, and proceeded alone to 
have an interview with General Castro, the Mexican 
Commandante. He wanted permission to take his 
company of sixty-two men to San Joaquin valley, 
to recruit their energies before setting out for 
Oregon. To this Castro assented, and told him to go 
where he pleased. Immediately thereafter the per- 
fidious Castro, pretending to have received fresh 
instructions from his Government, raised a com- 
pany of three hundred native Californians, and sent 
word to Fremont to quit the country forthwith, else 
he would fall upon and annihilate him and his little 
band of adventurers. Fremont sent word back that 
he should go when he got ready, and then took posi- 
tion on Hawk's Peak, overlooking Monterey, and 
raised the American flag. At this time neither party 
had heard of any declaration of war between the 
United States and Mexico. 

Fremont's party consisted of sixty-two rough 
American borderers, including Kit Carson and six 
Delaware Indians, each armed with a rifle, two pis- 
tols, a bowie-knife, and tomahawk. Castro maneu- 
vered round for three days with his cavalry, infantry 
and field pieces, but, with true Mexican discretion, 
kept well out of rifle shot; and, on the fourth day, 
Fremont, perceiving that there was no fight in the 
gascon, struck his camp and moved at his leisure 
toward Oregon. 

At Klamath lake, Lieutenant Gillespie, of the 
United States army, overtook Fremont's party, with 
verbal dispatches, and a letter from the American 
Secretary of State, commending the bearer to Fre- 
mont's good offices. That was all; what the verbal 
dispatches were is still unknown. Fremont returned 
to the Sacramento valley, and encamped near the 
Marysville Buttes. He found the American settlers 
greatly alarmed by Castro's war-like proclamations, 
and had no difficulty in raising a considerable com- 
pany of volunteers, a party of whom marched on 
the post of Sonoma, captured nine brass cannon, two 
hundred and fifty stand of small arms, and made 
prisoners of General Vallejo and two other persons 
of importance. Eighteen men were left to garrison 
the place, under William B. Ide. Castro fulminated 
another proclamation from his head-quarters at Santa 
Clara, calling on the native Californians to "rise for 
their religion, liberty, and independence," and Ide 
issued another at Sonoma, appealing to the Ameri- 
cans and other foreigners to rise and defend their 
rights of settlement, as tbej r were about to be mas- 
sacred or driven out of the country. The settlers 
responded numerously and with alacrity; and, after 
one or two skirmishes, repaired to Sonoma, declared 
an independent State, and raised the now celebrated 



30 



HISTORY OF AMADOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Bear Flag. That historic standard consisted of a 
piece of cotton cloth, with a tolerable likeness of a 
grizzly bear, done with a blacking-brash and berry- 
juice, and now belongs to the California Society of 
Pioneers. 

In the meantime Fremont was organizing a bat- 
talion at Sutter's Fort, and having heard that Castro 
was moving in force on Sonoma, he made a forced 
march to that point with ninety riflemen. Thence 
Fremont, Kit Carson, Lieutenant Gillespie, and a 
few others, crossed to the old fort at San Francisco, 
made prisoner the Commandante, spiked all the 
guns, and returned to Sonoma. There, on the 5th of 
July, 1846, he called his whole force of revolution- 
ists together, and recommended an immediate 
declaration of independence. This was unanimously 
assented to, and the bear party was merged into the 
battalion, which now numbered one hundred and 
sixty mounted riflemen. Next day it was deter- 
mined to go in pursuit of the proclaiming Castro, 
who was said to be entrenched at Santa Clara with 
four hundred men; but Avhen the battalion had 
crossed the Sacramento at Sutter's Fort, they 
learned that Castro had evacuated the Santa Clara 
country and fled to Los Angeles, whither they 
resolved to follow him, five hundred miles away. At 
this point news was received that the American flag- 
had been raised at Monterey, and that the American 
naval forces would co-operate with the mounted 
riflemen in the effort to capture Castro. Then the 
Bear Flag was hauled down, giving place to the 
stars and stripes, and Fremont and his men set out 
overland for Los Angeles, after the declamatory but 
fugacious Castro, who will live in history as the " Cap- 
tain Bobadil " of that brief but stiri-ing revolution. 
Up to this time nothing had been heard of a declara- 
tion of war between Mexico and the United States. 

On the 2d of July, 1846, Commodore Sloat had 
arrived at Monterey in the United States frigate, 
Savannah, his whole fleet consisting of one frigate 
and five smaller vessels. He had no intelligence 
of a declaration of war between the United States 
and Mexico, but was aware that hostilities were 
impending, and was in doubt what to do. The 
British Rear-Admiral, Sir George Seymour's flag- 
ship, was lying in the harbor of San Bias while Sloat 
was at Mazatlan, and eight other British ships were 
on the coast watching the American movements, and 
ready to take possession of California. When Sloat 
sailed from Mazatlan Seymour put out from San Bias, 
each ship spreading every sail in a race for Monterey, 
but the American Commodore out-sailed the British 
Admiral, and, when the latter rounded the Point of 
Pines at Monterey, he found the Americans in full pos- 
session. On the 7th of July Commodore Sloat sent 
Captain Mervine, with two hundred and fifty ma- 
rines and seamen, on shore, hoisted the American flag 
over Monterey, the capital of Upper California, and 
issued a proclamation declaring the province hence- 
forth a portion of the United States. He had pre- 



viously dispatched a messenger to San Francisco to 
Commander .Montgomery, and on the 8th of that 
month the stars and stripes waved over Yerba 
Buena. On tlie 10th Montgomery sent an American 
flag to Sonoma, which the revolutionists received 
with great joy, pulled down their Bear Flag, and 
boisted the Union standard in its stead, and thus 
ended the dominion of the revolutionary Bear Flag 
in California, having played a conspicuous and 
important part in the conquest. 

Sloat then organized a company of volunteer dra- 
goons to take possession of certain arms and stores 
at San Juan; but, when they arrived, Fremont and 
his battalion had been there from Sutter's Fort, and 
captui'ed nine pieces of cannon, two hundred mus- 
kets, twenty kegs of powder, and sixty thousand 
pounds of cannon shot. 

When Fremont reported himself upon Sloat's 
order, at Monterey, a misunderstanding occurred 
between the Commodore and the Pathfinder, and 
the former refused to co-operate with the latter in 
the further prosecution of the war, and while the 
dispute was pending Commodore Stockton arrived to 
supersede Sloat, who had been too slow and hesitating 
to suit the authorities at Washington. 

Sloat having retired, Stockton and Fremont worked 
harmoniously. The former assumed command of the 
land forces, and invited Fremont and Gillespie to 
take service under him with their battalion. On the 
23d, Stockton dispatched Commodore Dupont with 
the Cyane, to convey Fremont and his battalion to 
San Diego, and soon afterwards himself sailed for 
San Pedro, the sea-port of Los Angeles. At Santa 
Barbara he went ashore and took possession unre- 
sisted. There he learned that Castro and Pico were 
at Los Angeles with fifteen hundred men, and also 
that Fremont had reached San Diego. After drilling 
his seamen in the land service, Stockton, with his 
three hundred men, took up his march for Los 
Angeles, but, on his arrival, Castro had decamped 
and fled to Sonora. Stockton at once took posses- 
sion of the place, and was soon after joined by Fre- 
mont, and, having received official notice of existing 
war between the United States and Mexico, he pro- 
claimed California a territory of the United States, 
organized a temporary government, and invited the 
people to meet on the 15th of September and elect 
officers of their own. He then returned to Yerba 
Buena, or San Francisco, where the people of the 
neighboring country gave him a public reception. 

After Stockton had left Los Angeles, General Flores 
re-organized the scattered forces of the Mexicans, 
retook the place, and proclaimed expulsion or death 
to the Americans; so the conquest had to be made 
again. Stockton returned to San Diego, and, after 
various events which cannot be here related in 
detail, was joined by General Kearney, who had 
marched across the country from Santa Fe, and, on 
the 20th of December, commenced his march of one 
hundred and thirty miles to Los Angeles. He found 



SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY FROM 1841 TO 1847. 



31 



the enemy, a thousand or twelve hundred strong, 
drawn up in battle array on the bank of the San 
Gabriel river; a battle ensued, in which the Mexi- 
cans were defeated by Stockton and Kearney, and 
fled towards Los Angeles, and, after three ineffect- 
ual attempts to make a stand, they scattered in con- 
fusion. On the 10th of January Stockton re-entered 
Los Angeles, and restored the American flag to the 
eminence which it still maintains. Flores, after hav- 
ing made a much better fight than Castro, fled to 
Sonora. The treaty of Couenga ensued, restoring 
peace to the country and completing the American 
conquest. 

Immediately after the conquest a dispute arose be- 
tween Commodore Stockton and General Kearney as 
to precedence in the territorial Government. Kearney 
was authorized to etablish a civil Government in Cal- 
ifornia, provided he should conquer it, as he did New 
Mexico; Stockton and Fremont maintained that the 
conquest was accomplished before he arrived. Fre- 
.mont decided to report officially to Commodore 
Stockton, who thereupon commissioned him as Gov- 
ernor of the Territory. Thus Fremont obtained the 
ill-will of General Kearney, who, combining with 
Commodore Shubrick, in the absence of Stockton, 
abrogated the treaty of Couenga, and proceeded to 
oust Fremont from the Governorship. In the mean- 
time Colonel Stephenson arrived with his regiment 
of New York volunteers, and sided with Kearney. 
Mason was installed as Governor, and Fremont was 
ordered to report at Monterey within twelve days; 
this he failed to do, and Kearney refused him per- 
mission to join his regiment, sold his horses, and 
ordered him to repair to Monterey, where he com- 
pelled him to turn over his exploring outfit to 
another person. When Kearney was ready to go 
East he compelled Fremont to accompany him, and 
at Fort Leavenworth Fremont was arrested for 
insubordination, conveyed to Fortress Monroe, tried 
by Court-martial, found guilty of mutiny, disobedi- 
ence, and disorderly conduct, deprived of his com- 
mission, but recommended to the clemency of the 
President. Having suffered these outrageous indig- 
nities solely in consequence of a quarrel between 
Commodore Stockton and General Kearney, Fre- 
mont declined to avail himself of executive clemency, 
and quit the service. 

The people of the country generally considered 
that Fremont had been ungenerously used by the 
Government, and, a few years after, his popularity 
having been greatly enhanced through the influence 
of his magnificent wife, the daughter of Senator 
Thomas H. Benton, he was nominated for the Pres- 
idency by the Republican party. 



-> 



CHAPTER IX* 

SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY FROM THE TIME CAPT. C. 

M. WEBER FIRST SAW IT IN NOVEMBER, 

1841, UNTIL THE CLOSE OF 1847. 

Captain C. M. Weber— Expedition to California, 1841— Names 
of the Party— Sutter's Fort— Hoza Ha-soos— San Jose- 
French Camp or Weber Grant— Revolutionary Desions of the 
Foreigners— Treaty between Weber and Ha-soos— How it 
was observed by Ha-soos— Fremont's Expedition, 1S44— 
David Kelsey— Thomas Lindsay— Policy of the Foreigners— 
Weber and Michel torena at San Jose— John A. Sutter aids 
Micheltorena— A Revolutionary Document— The "Bear 
Fla S "— Attem Pt to Settle the G rant, 1846— Isbel Brothers 
and Other Early Settlers— Twins, Second Children born in 
County, 1847— End of Stanislaus City— First Marriage 1847 
—y^g e of ''Tuleburg"— William Garni, First Child born 
m 1847— Wild Horse Scheme— Resume. 

Capt. C. M. Weber was born at Hombourg, Depart- 
ment of Mont Tonnerre, under the Emperor Napo- 
leon I., on the 16th day of February, 1814. His 
parents were German. This province, about a year 
later, became a part of the Kingdom of Bavaria. 
His father was a minister, and held the position 
which in America would be called County School 
Superintendent. The Captain received an academic 
education— but not relishing an outlook that pre- 
sented the ministry in the future, his education was 
cat short at the threshold of the classic, and a mer- 
cantile horoscope was cast for the years " that were 
not yet." 

Being of an adventurous disposition, theland where 
Washington had fought and Be Kalb had fallen held 
to his youthful imagination an irresistible attraction; 
aud at the age of twenty-two he crossed the ocean, 
landed at New Orleans in the latter part of 1836 
and for five years was a resident of Louisiana and 
-Texas, when in the Spring of 1841, under medical 
advice, he visited St. Louis. In the meantime he had 
read in the newspapers the glowing descriptions of 
California given by Br. John Marshe, a resident of 
the San Joaquin valley, and which were attracting 
ing considerable attention in the States. The Cap- 
tain — knowing that a trip across the plains, over the 
mountains of the west, and down into the California 
valleys would benefithis health, and, at the same time 
give him an opportunity to see this comparatively un- 
known country— decided to join an expedition then 
fitting out in that city for a trip to the Pacific slope, 
intending in the following Spring to continue his 
journey to Mexico, through that country, and ulti- 
mately, in that way, reach Louisiana, his final desti- 
nation, having no intention of stopping in California 
longer, at the farthest, than through the ensuing- 
Winter. But "the best laid schemes o' mice and men 
gang aft agley." 

The party to which the Captain attachedhimself was 
a combination of emigrants for three different points: 
One party was destined for Oregon; another was a 
company of Jesuit priests going to the western wilds 

"The portion of the history of San Joaquin is intimately con- 
nected with that of Amador, forming the connecting link between 
the Spanish and American settlement. 



■H 



32 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



on a mission to the Indians, hoping to Christianize 
the tribes of Oregon and Idaho; their immediate 
destination was the missions of Occur d' Alcne and 
Pen d' Oreille; Father P. J. DcSmet, S. J., was the 
leading spirit, and his efforts in that field have been 
written, a brief page in history, and the red man 
still scalps his foes. The third was the California 
wing of the little emigrant army, and numbered 
among its party men whose subsequent acts hel| ted 
materially to shape the destinies of the State which 
has since become a golden star in the galaxy of the 
Republic. 

There were thirty-six in that party. One only 
was a woman — the first American lady, probably, 
who ever entered California — certainly the first to 
reach it from over the plains. Her name was Mrs. 
Nancy A. Kelsey. She was the wife ofBenjamin 
Kelsey, and they had a little daughter named Ann. 
This family commenced their march then, and, like 
the wandering Jew, have never since found a place 
to stop and rest. The beauties of California could 
not keep them, — they moved away to the forests of 
Oregon, and then returned again to the El Dorado 
ofthe coast; but no sooner had they settled there than 
the spirit of unrest came whispering "move on," and 
over the plains again they started; they were attacked 
by the Camanches in Texas, lost everything, and 
their little girl was scalped by the savages. Stopping 
for a time, they once more started for California 
and now are possibly moving to some new scene. 

The men ofthe party were: — 
'Capt. J. B. Bartelson; Captain of the party; re- 
turned to Missouri; is now dead. 
John Bidwell; lives at Chico. 
Joseph B. Childs; still alive. 

Josiah Belden; lives at San Jo3eand San Francisco. 
Charles M. Weber; died in Stockton, May 4, 1881. 
Charles Hopper; lives in Napa county. 
Henry Huber; lives in San Francisco. 
Mitchell Nye; had a ranch at Marysville; probably 

now alive. 
Green McMahon; lives in Solano county. 
Nelson McMahon; died in New York. 
Talbot H. Greene; returned East. 
Ambrose Walton; returned East. 
John McDonel; returned East. 
George Henshaw; returned East. 
Robert Ryckman; returned East. 
Wm. Betty or BelTy; returned East by way of 

Santa Fe. 
Charles Flugge; returned East. 
Gwin Patton; returned East; died in Missouri. 
Benjiman Kelsey; was within a few years in Santa 
Barbara county, or at Clear Lake, Lake county. 
Andrew Kelsey; killed by Indians at Clear Lake. 
James John or Littlejohn; went to Oregon. 
Henry Brolasky; went to Callao. 
James Dowson; drowned in Columbia river. 
Ma j. Walton; drowned in Sacramento river. 
George Shortwell; accidentally shot on the way 
out. 



JOHN SWARTz; died in California. 
Grove Cook; died in California. 
I). W. CHANDLER; went to Sandwich Islands. 
JNlCHOLAS Dawson; dead. 
Thomas Jones; dead. 

Robert H. Thomes; died in Tehama county, Cali- 
fornia, March .!(;, 1878. 
Elias Barnet. 
James P. Springer. 
John Rowland. 

They left Indpendence, Missouri, .May 8, 1841 and 
all traveled together as far as Fort Hall, near Salt 
Lake, where Capt. J. B. Bartelson's party, as named 
above, separated from the l'est and started for Cali- 
fornia, without a guide, by the way of Mary's (now 
HumboldC) river, they went to Carson river, and 
from the latter, to the main channel of Walker's 
river, up which they went to near its source, from 
which point they commenced their. passage of the 
Sierra Nevada, descending its western slope between 
the Stanislaus and Tuolumne rivers, reaching the 
San Joaquin valley and passing down along the 
Stanislaus, crossed the San Joaquin river and 
arrived at the Dr. Marshe ranch, near the east- 
ern base of Mount Diablo; on the 4th of November, 
1841, having been six months, lacking four days, on 
the way. Here the company rested for a number of 
days, and then disbanded, each going to the point 
in the country which his interests demanded. The 
Captain and a friend started for Sutter's Fort, having 
letters of introduction to Captain Sutter. They passed 
through the country now known as San Joaquin 
county, and beheld for the first time the land that 
the result of his own labors was to people within his 
life-time with thirty thousand souls. 

The Winter of 1841-2 was spent by the Captain at 
Sutter's Fort, occupying his. time by acting as over- 
seer and assistant for Captain Sutter. While at 
the fort he found a quantity of seeds which had 
been laid away and apparently forgotten. They had 
been sent to Sutter by Wm. G. Ray, of the Hudson 
Bay Company, as a friendly expression of good will. 
The Captain, desiring to try an experiment, had the 
land around the fort prepared b}^ Indians, and 
planted the seeds. Among them were three kinds of 
tobacco, a number of varieties of flowers, and some 
vegetables. The experiment proved a grand success, 
and in the Spring Sutter's Fort seemed like an en- 
chanted fortress built in the midst of perennial 
gardens. 

During the Avinter of 1841-2 Jose Jesus (pro- 
nounced Ho-za Ha-soos), the celebrated chief of the 
Si-yak-um-na tribe, visited the fort, at which time 
the Captain first met him. In after years there sprang 
up a warm friendship between these two men, that 
had much to do with the peaceable manner in which 
the country was afterwards settled by the whites. 
The Captain learned, in his intercourse with foreign- 
ers in the country, that there was germinating a prin- 
ciple or feeling which was in some localities freely 




. 



HMH^M 



SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY FROM 1841 TO 1847. 



33 



talked of, to eventually Americanize California; 
and, concluded with that prospect to look forward 
to, that he was fully warranted in casting his des- 
tinies with the other venturesome spirits who had 
decided to make Alta California their future home. 

In the Spring he visited San Jose, and concluded 
to make that the point of his future business oper- 
ations, until the time should come, if ever, when it 
would become necessary to wrest from Mexico a 
portion of the country, over which to hoist a flag with 
the "lone star." 

We do not wish to be misunderstood in this 
matter. The intention of the leading pioneers of Cali- 
fornia, those who came here previous to June, 1846, 
with the intention of making this their home, with- 
out regard to their nationality, was to work a polit- 
ical change in the country, "peaceably if they could, 
forcibly if they must;" and this was to be done not 
because of any desire to injure the native Califor- 
nians, nor in a spirit of conquest, but because it was 
evident to those clear-headed Argonauts that to make 
the country a prosperous one, (one that would war- 
rant occupation by a people of progressive civiliza- 
tion), necessitated a radical change in the manner of 
administering the affairs of State. 

This change they proposed to effect in connection 
with the native inhabitants, if they could; and if this 
could not be done, to eventually, when they became 
strong enough, wrest a portion of the territory from 
Mexico, and form a government of their own. 

Captain Weber formed a copartnership with 
Guillermo Gulnac, and soon established a credit which 
enabled the firm to do a very large business. They 
were the first parties in that portion of the State to 
build a flouring mill and manufacture flour, combin- 
ing with the business the manufacture of sea-biscuit 
or crackers, this mill having been erected and flour 
made in 1842. They also entered quite largely into 
the manufacture of soap and American shoes, being 
the first manufacturers of the latter in California. 

In 1843, July 14th, Guillermo Gulnac petitioned 
Manuel Micheltorena, the Governor of California, for 
a grant of eleven square leagues, or forty-eight thou- 
sand acres of land, to be located in the vicinity of 
French Camp, in the San Joaquin valley. Captain 
Weber was the real party, the power behind the 
throne; Mr. Gulnac's name being used because he 
was a Mexican citizen, as only such could obtain 
grants. About this time the commercial partnership 
was dissolved, the Captain becoming the successor to 
the business, and Mr. Gulnac, his eldest son, Jose, 
and Peter Lassen, with several vaqueros, took the 
cattle belonging to them and Captain Weber, and 
proceeded to take possession of the applied-for grant, 
at first making their head-quarters where Stockton 
now is; but owing to the fact that the Hudson Bay 
trappers had left for the summer, they became 
alarmed for their personal safety among the Indians 
and moved their camp up to the Cosumnes river, so 
as to be in reach of Sutter's Fort for protection. Mr. 



Gulnac visited Captain Sutter, and was presented by 
that officer with a swivel gun such as the navy used 
in those days when attacking an enemy in small 
boats, mounting the swivel in the bow. This "young 
cannon"was to be used by Mr. Gulnac as a warning to 
the Indians to " flee from the wrath to come." It 
would make a " heap big noise" when fired, and was 
respected accordingly by the aborigines. 

A statement will probably come in no place more 
opportune than here, of the reason which caused 
Captain Weber to desire the location of his proposed 
grant on the "up country side of -the San Joaquin 
river." We have already given the political intentions 
of those pioneers which in 1843 had assumed so 
definite a form as to have caused the question 
to be discussed among them of where the division 
line was to be drawn between the Mexican prov- 
inces and the territory to be taken from them, 
in case it should result in that extreme measure ; 
and the conclusion had been tacitly arrived at 
that the San Joaquin river and the bays of San 
Francisco, San Pablo and Suisun were to form the 
line of division. It will therefore be seen that a 
strong reason for choosing a locality north of the 
San Joaquin was to secure land where he could 
gradually concentrate his property within the limits 
of the country to be acquired. Another reason, for 
selecting this special locality, was the facilities it 
would give him for dealing with the Hudson Bay 
trappers, who made their head-quarters every winter 
at French Camp, from whom, in exchange for fur, he 
obtained ammunition, blankets, clothing, etc., of a 
better quality and at lower figures than could be 
obtained elsewhere at that time. 

The attempt to settle the expected grant had failed 
because of the fears of Gulnac, and the Captain ob- 
tained a passport from the Alcalde of San Jose, and 
proceeded to visit Sutter's Fort, with a view of see- 
ing the Indian chief, Ha-soos, and making a treaty 
of peace with him, if possible. After arriving in the 
country, an Indian runner was sent to find the chief, 
and ask him to meet the Captain at a given time 
and place. A meeting was arranged, and at the 
appointed time the two men, representatives of their 
races in the country, met. Captain Weber ex- 
plained his plans to the Indian, stating that he was 
desirous of settling on land in the San Joaquin valley; 
that the Americans were desirous of being his allies 
and friends; that they were not coming to injure nor 
rob, but as friends to aid and benefit his tribe; that 
he wished to settle here to be beyond the reach of 
the Spaniards, in case of trouble between the Ameri- 
cans and native Californians, against whom this cele- 
brated chief was waging an endless war. The result 
was a friendly alliance that remained unbroken to the 
end. The chief advised the building of the American 
village at the point where it was located, the present 
site of Stockton, and agreed to provide all the help 
necessary in the tilling of the soil, and to furnish a 
war party when called upon to defend the settlers' 



34 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



property against either Indians or Mexicans. The 
Captain was generous in his presents, and a friend- 
ship was started at the interview that lasted during 
the life of Ha-soos, and the Captain now remembers 
the Si-yak-um-na chief as one of his most reliable 
and valued friends of early days. 

The inhabitants of to-day can little appreciate the 
importance at the time, and the immediate advantage 
accruing to the foreign population of the country 
resulting from that treaty. One may pass through 
the County of San Joaquin and ask the old settlers 
what they know of Ha-soos and his connection with 
this country in early days, and may find five persons 
in his travels that will remember the chief, and that 
he was friendly to the Americans; but they, with one 
exception, that of Capt. C. M. Weber, will give him 
no credit for being so, supposing that it was forced 
or indolent friendship. It has become popular with 
the historian, as well as the men of 1849 and later, to 
place the California Indians, in the scale of creation, 
but one step above the African gorilla. Whatever 
may have been the general rule, there certainly was 
an exception in favor of the aborigines occupying 
the territory between the Tuolumne andMokelumne 
rivers. These Indians were divided up into ranche- 
rias or villages, each village having its chief and 
name. Consequently there was a number of petty 
chiefs, but all acknowledge an indefinite but undis- 
puted supremacy and authority in the chief of the 
Si-yak-um-nas, Ho-za Ha-soos, who had made him- 
self a terror to the Spanish inhabitants of North 
California. His name was to the native population 
what Osceola's was to the Floridians, except that 
the former chief was less brutal than the latter. He 
did not scalp his victims, like the Seminole, nor seek 
the midnight massacre of isolated persons. 

He believed that he and his people had been 
wronged by the Spanish, and he would never smoke 
the pipe of peace with them. He would swoop down 
upon the plains and carry off their stock, taking it 
to his stronghold in the foot-hills of the Sierras; and 
if the missions or settlers of those valleys saw fit to 
attempt a rescue, he fought them, and was univers- 
ally victorious. The San Joaquin river divided his ter- 
ritory from the Californians, and when cast of that 
stream he was upon his native heath; and it was 
rare indeed that the pursuers followed him into his 
own country. They had learned better in their 
battle on the banks of the Stanislaus in 1829, when 
" Estanisloa," the former chief of the Si-yak-um-nas, 
defeated their combined San Jose and Yerba Buena 
forces. 

It will be seen that Ho-za Ha-soos was so circum- 
stanced as to receive favorable advances from a peo- 
ple who gave as one of their reasons for desiring his 
friendship the probable hostility that might in the 
future exist between them and the Spanish people of 
the country. He believed that he was strengthening 
himself against his old foe. It will also be observed 
that the line beyond which the native Californians, 



even in armed parties, found it dangerous to pass, 
was tho San Joaquin river. Beyond this it was con- 
sidered and understood by them to be savage and 
inhospitable wilds. Ha-soos had made them respect 
that river as the practical north boundary line of their 
territory. Hence the propriety or policy of tho 
foreign population in selecting this river as the south 
boundaiy of the country they proposed, under cer- 
tain circumstances, to make into an independent 
state, along the borders of which they would have 
a picket line of Indian allies. 

In this connection we will mention two instances 
in which Ha-soos demonstrated his good will to the 
Americans, carrying out, on his part, the spirit of 
the alliance he had made with Captain Weber ; and 
we mention these with some hesitancy, not because 
of any doubt of the facts, but because it is hitherto 
unwritten history that may be questioned. The 
incidents referred to were related to us by Captain 
Weber, who says that when Captain Sutter passed 
through the country, in the Winter of 1844, to join 
and aid Manuel Micheltorena against the revolution- 
ary General, Jose Castro, Ha-soos joined him with a 
number of warriors. And later, when Gen. J. C. 
Fremont passed through the San Joaquin valley 
south, to help take this country from Mexico, that 
this chief was again on hand, and accompanied him 
to San Jose, to fight his old foes, in the interest of 
his friends, the Americans. Whether he actually 
performed any military act of hostility to the enemy 
on either occasion does not appear, but that he was 
ready so to do was demonstrated by his presence 
with his Avarriors. 

On the 13th of January, 1844, the Governor of 
California complied with the petition of Mr. Gulnac, 
and issued to him the grant of land known as "El 
Rancho del Campo de los Franceses," which in Eng- 
lish means " The French Camp Ranch." After the 
issuing of the grant, the next event worthy of note 
in the county was the passage through it of Capt. 
J. C. Fremont, who, on the 25th of March of that 
year, camped over night at the place since known 
as the village of Liberty, on the south side of Dry 
creek. It was in his memorable first expedition to 
the Pacific coast. He had been at Sutter's Fort re- 
cruiting and had started south on his way through 
the San Joaquin valley en route for the States. The 
following taken from the published history of his 
expedition, will have peculiar interest to the residents 
of this county: — 

"March 25th— We traveled for twenty- eight miles 
over the same delightful country as yesterday, and 
halted in a beautiful bottom at the ford of the Eio de 
los Mukelemnes, receiving its name from another 
Indian tribe living on the river. The bottoms on the 
stream are broad, rich, and extremely fertile ; and 
the uplands are shaded with oak groves. A showy 
lupinus of extraordinary beauty, growing four or 
five feet in height, and covered with spikes in bloom, 
adorned the banks of the river, and filled the air 
with a light and grateful perfume. 



SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY FROM 1841 TO 1847. 



35 



"On the 26th we halted at the Arroyo delasGala/oeras 

(Skull creek), a tributary to the San Joaquin — the pre- 
vious two streams entering the bay between the San 
Joaquin and Sacramento rivers. This place is beau- 
tiful, with-open groves of oak, and a grassy sward be- 
neath, with many plants in bloom; some varieties of 
which seem to love the shade c*f the trees, and grow 
there in close, small fields. Near the river, and re- 
placing the grass, are great quantities of am/mole (soap 
plant), the leaves of which are used in California for 
making, among other things, mats for saddle cloths. 
A vine with a small white flower (melothria) called 
here la yerba buena, and which from its abundance, 
gives name to an island and town in the bay, was 
to-day very frequent on our road — sometimes running 
on the ground or climbing the trees. 

"March 27th — To-day we traveled steadily and 
rapidly up the valley ; for with our wild animals 
any other gait was impossible, and making about 
four miles an hour. During the earlier part of the 
day, our ride had been over a very level part of 
prairie, separated by lines and groves of oak timber, 
growing along dry gullies, which are filled with 
water in seasons of rain ; and, perhaps, also by the 
melting snows. Over much of this extent, the vege- 
tation was sparse ; the surface showing plainly the 
action of water, which, in the season of flood, the 
Joaquin spreads over the valley. At one o'clock we 
came again among innumerable flowers ; and a few 
miles further, fields of the beautiful blue flowering 
lupine, which seems to love the neighborhood of 
water, indicated that we were approaching a stream. 
We have found this beautiful shrub in thickets, some 
of them being twelve feet in height. Occasionally 
three or four plants were clustered together, forming 
a grand bouquet, about ninety feet in circumference, 
and ten feet high ; the whole summit covered with 
spikes of flowers, the perfume of which is very sweet 
and grateful. A lover of natural beauty can imagine 
with what pleasure we rode among these flowering 
groves, which filled the air with a light and delicate 
fragrance. We continued our road for about half a 
mile, interspersed through an open grove of live- 
oaks, which, in form, were the most symmetrical and 
beautiful we had yet seen in the country. The ends 
of their branches rested on the ground forming some- 
what more than a half sphere of very full and regu- 
lar figure, with leaves apparently smaller than usual. 
The Calif'ornian poppy, of a rich orange color, was 
numerous. To-day, elk and several bands of ante- 
lope made their appearance. 

"Our road was now one continued enjoyment; and 
it was pleasant, riding among this assemblage of 
green pastures with varied flowers and scattered 
groves, and out of the warm, green Spring, to look at 
the rocky and snowy peaks, where lately we had 
suffered so much. Emerging from the timber Ave 
Came suddenly upon the Stanislaus river, where we 
hoped to find a ford, but the stream was flowing by, 
dark and deep, swollen by the mountain snows ; its 
general breadth was about fifty yards. 

" We traveled about five miles up the river, and 
encamped without being able to find a ford. Here 
we made a large corral, in order to be able to catch a 
sufficient number of our wild animals to relieve 
those previously packed. 

" Under the shade of the oaks, along the river, 1 
iioticed erodium cicutarium iu bloom, eight or ten 
inches high. This is the plant which we had seen 
the squaws gathering on the Rio de los Americanos. 
By the inhabitants of the valley, it is highly esteemed 
lor fattening cattle, which appear to be very fond of 



it. Here, where the soil begins to be sandy, it 
supplies to a considerable extent the want of grass. 

"Desirous, as far as possible, without delay, to 
include in our examination the Joaquin river, I 
returned this morning down the Stanislaus, for 
seventeen miles, and again encamped without having 
found a fording-place. After following it for eight 
miles further the next morning, and finding ourselves 
' in the vicinity of the San Joaquin, encamped in a 
handsome oak grove, and, several cattle being killed, 
we ferried over our baggage in their skins. Here our 
Indian boy, who probably had not much idea of 
where he was going, and began to be alarmed at the 
many streams we were putting between him and the 
village, deserted. 

" Thirteen head of cattle took a sudden fright, 
while we were driving them across the river, and 
galloped off. I remained a day in the endeavor to 
recover them; but finding they had taken the trail 
back to the fort, let them go without further effort. 
Here we had several days of warm and pleasant rain, 
which doubtless saved the crops below.'' 

In August, 1844, David Keisey, with his wife and 
two children, a boy and a girl, settled at French 
Camp, and built a tule-house. Mr. Gulnac, who was 
stopping at the Cosumnes river, had offered to give 
Mr. Keisey a mile square of land if he would stop at 
that place, and live one year; he turned over to him 
the "swivel" that Sutter bad given bim. Every 
night Mr Keisey threw this piece of ordnance "into 
battery," and fired an evening gun; which he did to 
frighten the Indians, on the same principle that a boy 
sometimes whistles as he is going through the woods 
after dark. At that time there was only one other 
house in the county, also constructed of tule, occu- 
pied by Thomas Lindsay, at Stockton. 

Mr. Keisey remained for several months at that 
place, and after his family had been obliged to live 
for two months on boiled wheat, meat, milk, and 
mint tea, gathered along the banks of the creek, he 
buried the swivel and removed temporarily to San 
Jose, where he first saw Captain Weber. While at 
that place he unfortunately went to see a sick Indian 
who had the small-pox, just before returning to 
French Camp. After returning he was immediately 
taken sick, and Mrs. Keisey desired to take him to 
Sutter's Fort, where he could have medical assist- 
ance, not knowing that he had the small-pox. When 
they reached Stockton, Mr. Lindsay induced them 
to stay over night, and while there a man by the name 
of James Williams gave him some medicine that 
caused the disease to break out. Lindsay immedi- 
ately vacated the premises, giving, as he left, advice 
that has a twang of barbarism in it; he told them if 
the old man died to leave his bodj" where the coyotes 
would devour it. In about six days the father died, 
the mother and boy were prostrated with the same 
disease, and little America, a girl eleven }-ears of age, 
was left alone with her sick mother and brother, to 
administer to their wants, while her dead father lay 
unburied in the hut; a sad introduction to the first 
American girl who ever saw the place where Stock- 
ton now stands, and a sadder one to the first white 



36 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



woman that visited the place; for the mother became 
blind from tbo effects of the disease, beholding that 
delirious, weird scene of pestilence and death as the 
last, to haunt the memory through the coming years 
of darkness; a hideous phantom, a scene of desola- 
tion, was that last look of the mother upon the sur- 
roundings of that little child nurse. 

Some herders chanced to come that way, who, 
after considerable hesitation, assisted little America 
in burying her father. One of them, Geo. F. Wyman, 
afterwards became the husband of America. The 
reason why they hesitated in coming to her assist- 
ance was a double one, — they feared the contagion 
and Captain Sutter, who had said he would have any 
man shot who brought small-pox to the fort, or went 
among the Indians who had it. The father was bur- 
ied near where Col. Thos. R. Moseley's house now 
stands, and in a few days the little nurse was stricken 
down with the dread disease, but recovered so as to 
be able to leave for Monterey in about six weeks. 
In about two weeks after they left, Thomas Lindsay 
returned to his house on Lindsay's Point, in Stock- 
ton, and was killed by the Luck-lum-na Indians, 
from lone valley, in Amador county, who fired the 
tule-house with their victim's body in it, and drove 
off all the stock. A party of whites, Mexicans and 
friendly Indians, went in pursuit of the band who 
had committed the depredations, and overtook them 
at the place called the " Island," near the foot-hills, 
where a conflict occurred, resulting in the burning 
of the Indian rancheria, with what provisions and 
property they had, the killing of a few of the war- 
riors of the hostile tribe, and the capture of one 
Indian boy by William Daylor, of Daylor's ranch ; one 
Mexican by the name of Yaca, a member of the Yaca 
family, formerly of Solano county, was killed by the 
Indians in the fight. After this defeat they retreated 
into the mountains, where they were followed, but 
not overtaken.* 



*Since the foregoing was written in 1879, some further facts 
have come to our knowledge, which not only puts this matter in 
a different light but also demonstrates the difficulty of making 
the first attempt at writing history succsssful. 

D. T. Bird, who, at one time, was an officer in the California 
battalion under Fremont, during the hostilities that succeeded 
the Bear Flag war, says that he was one of the parties that pur- 
sued the Indians who murdered Lindsay at Stockton, and he 
takes the poetry all out of the conclusion given to that expedi- 
tion. Instead of the Luck-lum-na Indians of lone valley being 
chastised, they whipped the pursuing party (about thirty strong, 
half whites and half friendly Indians), who were under the com- 
mand of Captain Merrit, of Bear Flag fame. Captain Sutter 
organized the pursuing party, and among the white men accom- 
panying it, were Captain Merrit, D. T. Bird, Charles Heath, 
Vaca (a Spaniard), Hicks and Gillespie. The fight was a short 
one resulting in Vaca's receiving a mortal wound from an arrow 



The small-pox and the breaking out of the Mich- 
cltorena war, combined, had depopulated the county. 

There had been, in the latter part of 1844, and 
Spring of 1845, a serious departure by the foreign 
population of the country from their understood pol- 
icy, in their intercourse with the natives of Cali- 
fornia; which was a policy of non-intervention 
between opposing factions of the country, that had 
been decided upon and agreed to between the lead- 
ing men, as being the best calculated to produce the 
final result at which they were aiming. Let the 
Spanish population quarrel to their hearts' content, 
let civil war sweep over the country, and array the 
opposing factions against each other on the battle- 
field; it helped to prepare the people of all classes, 
foreign and native, for a change; but in every emer- 
gency the American, the German, the Englishman, 
the immigrant, whatever his native land was to hold 
himself aloof, reserving his strength to be used as 
one man for the general good of all, when the proper 
time should come to act. All over California, from 
Los Angeles to Monterey, and from Monterey to 
Sutter's Fort, the foreign population were few in 
numbers, one and two, sometimes a half-dozen in a 
place, so scattered and so isolated that a false move 
on the part of a few might prove fatal to many; it 
consequently was important at that time that the 
policy of non-interference should be pursued. Yet, 
as we have previously mentioned, a serious depart- 
ure from that policy was inaugurated in the Michel- 
torena war, without, apparently, any general con- 
sultation or plan on the part of immigrants, those of 
each section or country marking out their own line 
of action, regardless of the probable consequent 
injury that might result to those of a different 
locality. 

The first instance was that forced upon Capt. C. 
M. Weber, consequent from the loss of control, by 
Micheltorena, over the outlaws called soldiers, whom 
he commanded in 1844. The Captain was in busi- 
ness at the Pueblo of San Jose when the war broke 
out, and was acquainted with and personally friendly 
to both Micheltorena and Castro. He had a very 
large stock of goods in the place, and was anxious 
on account of it. He knew that the soldiers under 
Micheltorena were mostly convicts, turned loose 
from the prisons in Mexico, and were dependent 
upon the meager revenue derived from forced 
loans and plunder for their pay. His goods 



that entered his side. In attempting to draw it from his body, 
the arrow-head was broken from the shaft, and in an hour the 
unfortunate man was dead. Up to the time of his death they 
managed to hold their position, when, finding the enemy too 
strong for them, the body of the dead Spaniard was laid upon a 
pile of brush and burned, to prevent its falling into the hands of 
the savages; after which they stole away in the darkness, and 
reached Sutter's Fort without unneccs-ary delay. 



SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY FROM 1841 TO 1847. 



37 



would be a rich prize, and if they once entered San 
Jose, they would be sure to help themselves to 
what he had; consequently all his interests were 
opposed to the occupation of the town by such a 
body of men. As Micheltorcna advanced, Jose Cas 
tro became alarmed, and, leaving San Jose to its fate, 
retreated up the valley towards Oakland- with his 
forces; whereupon Captain Weber addressed a com- 
munication to the commander of the advancing 
forces, stating that Castro had left San Jose, and 
asked him if he would not pass to one side of the 
pueblo, and not enter it with his troops. Michelto- 
rena replied that he found it necessary to pass 
through San Jose in his pursuit of Castro. In the 
meantime the Captain received prompt information 
to the effect that the Governor had lost control of 
his soldiery, who insisted on entering the village for 
plunder; whereupon the Captain caused the tocsin 
of Avar to be sounded through' the streets. The 
people assembled, and the Captain presented the 
position of affairs, and told them that he believed, 
with a force composed of the citizens and foreigners 
in the place, the advancing army could be checked, 
and forced to take a different route in their line of 
march after Castro. A company was immediately 
formed, placed under his command, and moved out 
to meet the enemy, a handful against a host. Send- 
ing a courier in advance to meet Micheltorena, advis- 
ing him of what he was doing, and that it was 
done, not in a spirit of opposition to him personally, 
or the cause which he represented, but with a deter- 
mination to protect their homes from plunder. The 
forces met some twelve miles out from the village, 
and for several days the entire army, numbering 
several hundred, was held in check by this little band 
of brave men under Captain Weber. Castro, hear 
ing of the fact, became ashamed of himself, turned 
back from his retreat, joined the Captain with his 
forces, took command of the army, and forced 
Micheltorena to surrender, and, finally, to agree to 
leave California and return to Mexico. For the time 
this ended the war. It was again revived by Mich- 
eltorena, who faHed to comply with his agreement 
when he learned that Capt. John A. Sutter could be 
relied upon for assistance. Sutter, wishing to retain 
the old regime until his land titles were perfected, 
in December, 1844, marched to the lower country 
with his deluded followers, being met on the way, 
at the residence of Dr. John Marshe, by J. Alex. 
Forbes, of tbe Hudson Bay Company, who tried to 
dissuade him from proceeding further with the 
enterprise, but without avail, telling the Captain at 
the same time that in General Castro's army was a 
large number of Americans, and that his act was ar- 
raying the foreign-born population against each other. 
Sutter's reply to all was that he had gone too far to 
withdraw without discredit to himself. He pushed 
on towards the south, and his men, suspecting some- 
thing wrong, began to desert until but few remained. 
Finally, when the hostile armies stood face to face, a 



parley was insisted upon, and it was found that the 
foreigners were fighting in the ranks of both armies; 
after which, Sutter had, practically, no followers, 
and fell, finally, into the hands of Castro, who, but 
for the strong intervention of friends, would have 
had him shot. 

' This unfortunate proceeding was the second breach 
in the policy of non-intervention; and it came so 
near becoming disastrous, that it called forth an ex- 
pression of disapprobation for the course pursued; 
such a policy continued would Mexicanize the Amer- 
icans, not Americanize the Mexicans. The result 
was that the narrow escape demonstrated the neces- 
sity of an organized plan of action, so that in future 
they might be well advised of all contemplated 
movements, and act together as a body and thus 
make themselves felt, instead of exj^ending their 
force against each other. With a view of accom- 
plishing this object, and thus pave the way for the 
future segregation of California from Mexico, a call 
was written, subscribed and circulated. * * * * 

For various causes there was not as formidable a 
gathering as was desired at the time designated,* and 
the meeting only included those within easy reach 
of San Jose; there was consequently nothing of 
importance accomplished, and there was a failure to 
obtain a general organization; but the purposes of 
the foreign population remained unchanged, and 
culminated, finally, in the hoisting of the " Bear 
Flag," which, but for the United States taking the 
struggle off their hands, would have proved to be 
what it was in fact, a premature move. It was 
entered upon without general consultation or ma- 
tured plan, and but- for the occupation of the coun- 
try by the United States, which occurred a little 
later, would have proved disastrous to many for- 
eigners living farther south, who were wholly 
unadvised in regard to the movement. Had the 
organization been made as was contemplated by the 
signers of the instrument, the Bear Flag would never 
have been raised, but without the intervention of the 
United States it would have resulted in taking the 
country from Mexico, making San Joaquin one of the 
frontier counties of the State. 

It is not the purpose of this work to give a State 
history, therefore we return to the march of events 
in San Joaquin, having followed those occurrences 
outside only which had a direct bearing upon the 
history of this county. 

On the third day of April, 1845, C. M. Weber 
purchased of Mr. Gulnac the remaining interest in 
the French Camp Grant, Mr. Weber becoming its 
sole owner; but no further attempt was made at 
settlement until 1846, when he induced a number of 
settlers, under the leadership of Napoleon Schmidt, 
to locate. They had no sooner become settled in 
their new homes than the Avar-cloud burst, which 
had been hanging over the country, and the settlers 

* July 4, 1845. 



38 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



again scattered to locations where they would be 
loss isolated in case of an attack by the Mexicans. 

In November, 1846, the Isbel brothers took up 
land on the Calaveras, that stream dividing their 
ranches or claims; Dr. I. C. Isbel occupying the 
north, and his brother James the south side ol 
the " river of skulls," where Fremont had crossed 
it in 18-14. The doctor erected a log cabin near the 
river, which is still standing. It is the oldest house 
in the county, in fact the oldest in the San Joaquin 
valley, and should be preserved as a relic of the 
past. The same month and year, Turner Elder 
erected a cabin on Dry creek, where the village of 
Liberty was afterwards laid out. Mr. Elder was a 
married man, and had brought his wife and three 
little children with him to this country. On the 
opposite, or north side of the creek, and a little 
further down, his father-in-law, Thomas Rhodes, 
located. Thomas Pyle settled at what is now 
known as Staples' Ferry, in the »ame year and 
month, with his family — a wife and two children. It 
was during the month of November, 1846, that 
Samuel Brannan established his colony on the Stan- 
islaus, about one and one-half miles above its mouth, 
calling the place " Stanislaus City. 

It will be observed that during this year, two dis- 
tinct colonies were established, and four ranches 
taken up in San Joaquin county, at the points where 
the old Spanish trail, between Sutter's Fort and San 
Jose, crossed the several streams in the county. 
This was a strong demonstration toward settlement. 
Weber's party had left at the first notes of alarm ; 
Samuel Brannan's colony remained until the follow- 
ing Spring, and then all left, except Buckland — leav- 
ing only the ranchers on the Spanish trail and 
Buckland, as the inhabitants to dispute possession 
of the county with the Indians. The five settlers 
remaining were Dr. I. C. Isbel, and his brother, 
James, on the Calaveras; Thomas Pyle, on the 
Mokelumne; Turner Elder, on Dry creek; and 
Buckland, on the Stanislaus. 

*Dr. Isbel retained his claim until 1848, when he 
sold to the Hutchinson brothers, and they in turn 
to Mr. Dodge. 

Thomas Pyle abandoned his place in 1848, and 
moved to Coyote creek, near San Jose, where he 
was shot through the head and killed, about 1855, 
by a young Spaniard. A man by the name of Smith 
took up the place, claiming a grant, and sold to John 
F., the brother of Thomas Pyle, and John W. Laird, 
who had married one of his sisters. These parties 
sold to Staples, Nichols & Co., in February, and 
moved from there in April, 1850. Mr. Laird died 
near Grayson, in May, 1878; and J. F. Pyle is still 
living on his ranch, near Wclden, on Kern river, 
California. 

Turner Elder lived at Dry creek about one 

* Dr. Isbel is mentioned in another part of the history in con- 
nection with a mob affair in the western part of the county 
(Amador). He resided in Volcano, in 1855. 



year, and then moved on to the north bank of the 
Mokelumne river, at the place afterwards known as 
the "Benedict Ranch,'' and, while there, on the 
fifth day of November, 1847, his wile presented him 
with a pair of twins, a boy and girl, who were named 
John and Nancy. These were the second children 
born of white parents in the county. Soon after the 
birth of these children, on account of the unpro- 
tected position, Mr. Elder abandoned his place and 
joined his brother-in-law Daylor, of the Daylor 
ranch, in Sacramento county. lie afterwards made 
money in placer mining, and returned to Ray count}', 
Missouri, in 1849, where he now lives. The children 
are both living; the girl in Pay county, as the wife 
of a Dr. Reese; and the boy, now married, at Emi-. 
grant's Ditch, in Fresno county, California — his post- 
office address being "Kingsbury Switch." 

Mr. Buckland, of Stanislaus City, moved from 
there to Stockton, in the fall of 1847. Assisted by 
"William Fairchilds, he afterwards built the Buck- 
land House, in San Francisco. Of the Stanislaus 
City settlers, the only ones known to be living now 
are Samuel Brannan, of San Francisco, John M. 

Horner, near San Jose, and Nichols, of San 

Leandro. 

When, in the Fall of 1847, Turner Elder left his log- 
house and claim at Dry creek, Mrs. Christina Pat- 
terson, his aunt, moved into it — her husband having 
died of mountain fever while crossing the mountains 
in 1846. She was soon after married to Ned Robin- 
son. This was the first marriage ceremony performed 
in the county. Mr. Robinson, in turn, abandoned the 
place when gold was discovered, in January, 1848, 
and in 1878 they were stopping at French Camp, for 
the Winter, on their way to the northern country. 

Captain Weber, in the meantime, had been living 
at San Jose from 1842 to 1847,. following his business 
of merchandizing, and not giving personal attention 
to the settlement of his grant. During the year 
1847 he sold his stock of goods, and in August of 
that year, with a number of men, two hundred 
horses and four thousand cattle, moved to the San 
Joaquin, and founded a settlement which became 
permanent; Stockton being the point and result of 
his efforts. In the Fall, the grant was surveyed and 
sectionized by Jasper O'Farrell, thi-ough his deputy, 
Walter Herron; a village site being at the same time 
laid out for settlers' homes, which received the name 
of "Tuleburg." Coming events had not yet "cast 
their shadows before." The village plat of Tule- 
burg, and the name, both passed out of existence at 
the same time, when, in 1848, after the gold discov- 
ery, the place was re-surveyed and laid out for com- 
mercial purposes by Captain Weber, who gave it the 
name of Stockton, after Com. Robert Stockton, of the 
United States navy. 

In October, 1847, a company of overland immi- 
grants arrived at the place, on their way to the lower 
country. Mr. Weber pursuaded them to stop for a 
time and look over *the valley, to see if they would 



BIOGRAPHIC SKETCH OF GENERAL SUTTER. 



39 



not consider it to their advantage to remain. W. H. 
Fairchilds, County Supervisor in 1878, was of this 
party, as well as Nicholas Gann and his wife, Ruth, 
who, while they were camping on the point where 
Weber's house now stands, in October, gave birth to 
a son, to whom they gave the name of William. 
This was the first child born of white parents in the 
county. With the exception of Mr. Fairchilds, the 
parties all decided to move farther south. Mr. 
Nicholas Gann now lives not far from Gilroy, in 
Santa Clara county, California. 

It was during that year that Capt. Charles 
Imus undertook to carry out a " wild horse scheme." 
He selected a point on the San Joaquin river, where 
San Joaquin City now stands, which he considered 
favorable, and then went to the mountains west of 
the valley and commenced cutting timber, to build a 
corral, into which he proposed driving wild horses, 
and there to capture them; when Pico, on whose 
grant he was cutting the timber, put a stop to his 
visions of corraling the " untamed steeds of the 
desert;" by singing to him the pathetic song of 
" Woodman, Spare that Tree," and the Captain, not 
caring to verify the old saw of " a nod is na sa good 
as a kick for a blind horse," folded up his tent like 
the Arab, and departed into the lower country. 
Captain Imus was the leader of the party that 
crossed the plains in 1846, of which the Pyles, Isbels, 
Elders, and Rhodes were members. 

The history of San Joaquin county, up to the close 
of 1847, has been given in the preceding pages as 
completely as it is possible to get it from the memory 
of the participants who still survive. The only 
occupants of this section of country, up to that time, 
had first been the Indians, then the American 
trappers, followed by the Hudson Bay Company, 
who were succeeded in turn by the Americans, who 
came from the States, with a view of making for 
themselves and families permanent homes. 

But a change, absolute and radical, lay hid in 
the near future. On the line that separated the 
year 1847, and what had preceded it, from " the 
future that was not yet," stands a mile-post that 
"Time," set by the wayside, which marks the 
beginning of a year, in which was wrought a 
change as absolute, in the march of human events, 
and the destinies of this coast, as would ordinarily 
have occurred in the passing of a century. 



$>f-<^E# 



CHAPTER X. 

BIOGRAPHIC SKETCH OF GENERAL SUTTER. 

His Nativity — Migration to the American West — Arrival in Cal- 
ifornia — Foundation of Sutter's Fort — Prosperity and 
Wealth of the Colony — Decline and Ultimate Ruin — Retire- 
ment to Hock Farm — Extract from Sutter's Diary. 

The following sketch of the life and adventures of 
General John A. Sutter is from Oscar T. Shuck's 
"Representative Men of the Pacific." The facts 
were derived directly from the famous old pioneer, 
and are, perhaps, the most complete and accurate 
that have ever been published. Mr. Shuck says: — 

" General John A. Sutter was born March 1, 1803, 
in the Grand Duchj^ of Baden, where his early boy- 
hood was passed. His father, who was a clergyman 
of the Lutheran church, afterwards removed to 
Switzerland, and settled there with his family. He 
purchased for himself and heirs the rights and immu- 
nities of Swiss citizenship, and there the subject of 
our sketch received a good education, both civil and 
military. 

" Early in life he married a Bernese lady, and was 
blessed with several children. At the age of thirty- 
one he determined to gratify a desire he had long 
cherished to immigrate to the United States. Not 
knowing whether or not he should settle perma- 
nently in the Great Republic, he concluded to leave 
his family behind him, and arrived at New York in 
July, 1834. After visiting several of the Western 
States he settled in Missouri, and there resided for 
several years. During his residence in Missouri he 
made a short visit to New Mexico, where he met 
with many trappers and hunters who had returned 
from Upper California, and their glowing descrip- 
tions confirmed his previous impressions, and ex- 
cited an ardent desire to behold and wander over 
the rich lands and beautiful valleys of that then 
almost unknown region. Upon returning to Mis- 
souri he determined to reach the Pacific coast by 
joining some one of the trapping expeditions of the 
American or English Fur Companies. But great 
obstacles were to be surmounted, and long years 
were to intervene before his feet would rest upon 
the virgin soil of California. On the 1st of April, 
1838, he was enabled, for the first time, to connect 
himself with a trapping expedition. On that day 
he left Missouri with Captain Tripp, of the American 
Fur Company, and traveled with his party to their 
rendezvous in the Rocky Mountains. There he 
parted with the expedition, and with six horsemen 
crossed the mountains, and, after encountering the 
usual dangers and hardships, arrived at Fort Van- 
couver, on the Columbia river. 

"Having learned that there was no land communica- 
tion with California from the valleys of the Columbia 
or Willamette in Winter, and there being then a ves- 
sel of the Hudson Bay Company ready to sail for 
the Sandwich Islands, General Sutter took passage, 
hoping to find at the islands some means of convey- 
ance to California. Only one of the men who had 
remained with him thus far consented to accompany 
him to the strange land. On reaching the islands 
he found no prospect of conveyance, and, after 
remaining five months, as the only means of accom- 
plishing his purpose, ho shipped as supercargo, with- 
out pay, on an English vessel bound lor Sitka. 

'•After discharging her cargo at Sitka, and. with 
the authority of the owners, he directed the vessel 
southward, and sailed down the coast, encountering 



40 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



heavy gales. He was driven into the Bay of San 
Francisco in distress, and, on the second day of July, 
L839, anchored his little craft opposite Verba Buena, 
now San Francisco. 

" lie was immediately waited upon by a Mexican 
official with an armed force, and ordered to leave 
without delay, the officer informing him that Mon- 
terey was the port of entry. He succeeded, however, 
in obtaining permission to remain forty-eight hours 
to get supplies. 

" A few days later, upon arriving at Monterey, 
General Sutter waited upon Governor Alvarado, and 
communicated to him his desire to settle in Upper Cal- 
ifornia, on the Sacramento. Governor Alvarado 
expressed much satisfaction upon learning his visit- 
or's wish, particularly Avhen he understood his desire 
to settle-on the Sacramento; saying that the Indians 
in that quarter were very hostile, and Avould not 
permit any whites to settle there; that they robbed 
the inhabitants of San Jose and the lower settle- 
ments of horses and cattle. He readily gave Sutter 
a passport, with authority to settle on any territory 
he should deem suitable for his colony, and requested 
him to return to Monterey one year from that time, 
when his Mexican citizenship would be acknowl- 
edged, and he would receive a grant for the land he 
might solicit. Thereupon, he returned to Yerba 
Buena and chartered a schooner, with 'some small 
boats, and started upon an exploring expedition on 
the Sacramento river. 

" Upon inquiry he could not find any one at Yerba 
Buena who had ever seen the Sacramento river, or 
who could describe to him where he should find its 
mouth. The people of that place only professed to 
know that some large river emptied into one of the 
connected bays l} T ing northerly from their town. 
General Sutter consumed eight days in the effort to 
find the mouth of the Sacramento river. 

" After ascending the river to a point about ten 
miles below where Sacramento City now stands, he 
encountered the first large party of Indians, who 
exhibited every sign of hostility save an actual 
attack. There were about two hundred of them, 
armed and painted for war. Fortunately there were 
among them two who understood Spanish, and with 
whom the General engaged in conversation. He 
quieted them by the assurance that there were no 
Spaniards in his party, and that he wished to settle 
in their country and trade with them. He showed 
them his agricultural implements and commodities 
of trade, which he had provided for the purpose, 
and proposed to make a treaty with them. Pleased 
with these assurances, the Indians became recon- 
ciled; the crowd dispersed, and the two who spoke 
the Spanish language accompanied Sutter and his 
party as far as the mouth of Feather river, to 
show him the country. All other parties of Indians 
seen fled at the sight of the vessel and boats. 

" Parting with his two Indian interpreters and 
"•uides at the mouth of Feather river, he ascended 
the latter stream to a considerable distance, when a 
few of his white men became alarmed at the sur- 
rounding dangers and insisted upon returning, which 
he was constrained to do. 

" On his descent he entered the mouth of the 
American river, and on the 15th day of August, 
1839, landed at the point on the south bank of that 
stream, where he afterwards established his tannery, 
within the present limits of Sacramento. On the 
following morning, after landing all his effects, he 
informed the discontented whites that all who 
wished to return to Yerba Buena could do so; 



that the Kanakas were willing to remain, and that 
he had resolved to do so, if alone. Three of the 
whites determined to leave, and he put them in pos- 
session of the schooner, with instructions to deliver 
t lie vessel to her owners. They set sail for Yerba 
Buena the same day. 

"Three weeks thereafter General Sutter removed 
to the spot upon which he afterwards erected Fort 
Sutter. In the early days of the settlement he 
encountered many troubles with the Indians, who 
organized secret expeditions, as he afterwards 
learned, to destroy him and his party, but he con- 
trived to defeat and frustrate all their machinations, 
and those of the Indians who were at first his great- 
est enemies, came to be his best and most steadfast 
friends. He now devoted himself energetically to 
agriculture, and became very wealthy and pros- 
perous. 

" In the Fall of the year 1839, he purchased of 
Senor Martinez three hundred head of cattle, thirty 
horses, and thirty mares. During the Fall eight 
more white men joined his colony. When he com- 
menced the improvements that resulted in the erec- 
tion of Sutter's Fort and his establishment there, he 
had much trouble in procuring suitable lumber and 
timber. He floated some down the American river 
from the mountains, and was compelled to send to 
Bodega, on the sea-coast, a distance of several hun- 
dred miles. 

"In August, 1840, Sutter was joined by the five 
men who had crossed the Rocky Mountains with him, 
and whom he had left in Oregon. His colony now 
numbered twenty-five men, seventeen whites and 
eight Kanakas. During the Fall of that year the 
Mokelumne Indians became troublesome, by stealing 
the live-stock of the settlers, and compelled General 
Sutter, by their acts and menaces, to make open war 
against them. He marched with his forces thirty 
miles, in the night time, to the camp of the Indians, 
where they were concentrating large forces for a 
movement against him, some two hundred warriors, 
and attacked them with such great effect that they 
retreated, and being hotly pursued, they sued for 
peace, which was readily granted, and ever after- 
wards mutually maintaine'd. 

" Shortly after this encounter, Sutter purchased 
one thousand more head of cattle, and seventy-five 
horses and mules. His colony continued to increase 
fast, by the addition of every foreigner who came 
into the country; they sought his place as one of 
security. The trappers he furnished with supplies, 
and purchased their furs; the mechanics and laborers 
he either employed or procured them wOi*k. 

" In June, 1841, he visited Monterey, the capital, 
where he was declared a Mexican citizen, and 
received from Governor Alvarado a grant for his 
land, # under the name of New Helvetia, a survey of 
which he had caused to be made before that time. 
Thereupon he was honored with a commission as 
' represendente del Govierno en las fronter as del 
norte y encargado de la justicia.' 

" Soon after his return to his settlement he was 
visited by Captain Ringgold, of the United States 
Exploring Expedition under Commodore Wilkes, and 
about the same time by Alexander Rotcheff, Gov- 
ernor of the Russian Possessions, Ross and Bodega, 
who offered to sell to General Sutter the Russian 
Possessions, settlements, and ranches at those places. 

" The terms were such as induced him to make the 
purchase, forthirty thousand dollars. The live-stock 
consisted of two thousand cattle, over one thousand 
horses, fifty mules, and two thousand sheep, the 



BIOGRAPHIC SKETCH OF GENERAL SUTTER. 



41 



greater part of which were driven to New Helvetia. 
This increase of resources, together with the natural 
increase of his stock, enabled him the more rapidly 
to advance his settlement and improvements. 

" In the year 1844 he petitioned Governor Miehel- 
torena for the grant or purchase of the sobrante, or 
surplus, over the first eleven leagues of the land 
within the bounds of the survey accompanying 
(he Alvarado grant, which the Governor agreed to 
let him have; but, for causes growing out of existing 
political troubles, the grant was not finally executed 
until the 5th of February, 1845; during which time 
lie had rendered valuable military services and ad- 
vanced to the Government large amounts of property 
and outlays, exceeding eight thousand dollars, to 
enable it to suppress the Castro rebellion; in consid- 
eration of all which he acquired by purchase and 
personal services the lands called the Sobrante, or 
surplus. 

"At that time he also secured from Governor 
Micheltorena the commission of ' Commandantc mili- 
tar de las fronteras del norte y encargado de la 
justicia.' After this time the .war between the 
United States and Mexico came on, and although 
General Sutter was an officer under the Mexican 
Government, and bound to it by his allegiance, yet, 
upon all occasions, 'such was his respect towards the 
citizens and institutions of the United States, that 
whenever any party of American citizens, civil or 
military service, visited him, his unbounded hospitali- 
ties were uniformly and cordially extended to them; 
and when the country surrendered to the American 
forces, the General, who had been for some time con- 
vinced of the instability of the Mexican Government, 
upon request, did, on the 11th of July, 1846, hoist 
the American flag with a good heart, accompanied 
with a salute of artillery from the guns at the fort. 
Soon after this Lieutenant Missoon, of the United 
States Navy, came up and organized a garrison for 
Sutter's Fort, principally out of his former forces of 
whites and Indians, and gave to General Sutter the 
command, Avhich he maintained until peace returned. 
He was then appointed by Commodore Stockton 
Alcalde of the district, and by General Kearney 
Indian Agent, with a salary of seven hundred and 
fifty dollars a year; but a single trip in discharge of 
his duty as Indian Agent cost him one thousand six 
hundred dollars, and he resigned the office. 

"General Sutter was now in the full tide of pros- 
perity. His settlement continued to grow and his 
property to accumulate, until the latter part of 
January, 1848. He had then completed his estab- 
lishment at the fort ; had performed all the condi- 
tions of his grants of land; had, at an expense of at least 
twenty-five thousand dollars, cut a race of three 
miles in length, and nearly completed a flouring-mill 
near the present town of Brighton ; had expended 
towards the erection of a saw-mill, near the town of 
Coloma, about ten thousand dollars; had sown over a 
thousand acres of land in wheat which promised a yield 
of forty thousand bushels, and had made preparations 
for other crops; was then the owner of eight thou- 
sand head of cattle, over two thousand horses and 
mules, over two thousand sheep, and one thousand 
head of hogs, and was in the undisturbed, undisputed 
and quiet possession of the extensive lands granted 
by the Mexican Government. But a sad change was 
about to take place in the affairs of the old pioneer ; 
a grand event was about to transpire, which, while it 
would delight and electrify the world at large, was 
destined to check the growth of the settlement at 
Suiter's Fort. General Sutler's mills were soon to 
6 



cease operations; his laborers and mechanics were soon 
to desert him ; his possessions, his riches, his hopes 
were soon to be scattered and destroyed before the 
impetuous charge of the gold-hunters. The immedi- 
ate effect was that Sutter was deserted by all his 
mechanics and laborers, white, Kanaka and Indian. 
The mills thus deserted became a dead loss; he could 
not hire labor to further plant or mature his crops, 
or reap but a small part after the grain had ripened. 
Few hands were willing to work for even an ounce a 
day, as the industrious could make more than that 
in the mines. Consequent of the gold discovery 
there was an immense immigration, composed of all 
classes of men, many of whom seemed to have no idea 
of the rights of property. The treaty between the 
United States and Mexico guaranteed to the Mexican 
who should remain in the country a protection of his 
property, and Sutter regarded himself as doubly 
entitled to that protection, either as a Mexican or a 
citizen of the United States, and that he held a 
strong claim upon his country's justice. His property 
was respected for a season; but when the great flood 
of immigration, which poured into the country in 
1849-'50, found that money could be made by other 
means than mining, many of the new-comers forcibly 
entered upon his land, and commenced cutting his 
wood, under the plea that it was vacant and unappro- 
priated land of the United States. Up to the first of 
January, 1852, the settlers had occupied all his lands 
capable of settlement or appropriation, and the other 
class had stolen all his horses, mules, cattle, sheep 
and hogs, save a small portion used and sold by him- 
self. One party of five men, during the high waters 
of 1849-'50, when his cattle were partly surrounded 
by water near the Sacramento river, killed and sold 
enough to amount to sixty thousand dollars. 

"Having seen his power decline and his riches 
take wings, General Sutter removed to the west bank 
of Feather river, and took up his residence at Hock 
farm. Here, in the midst of his family, who had 
recently arrived from Europe, he led the quiet life of 
a farmer in the county that bears his name." 

The following verbatim copy of notes in General 
Sutters own handwriting, we insert, notwithstanding 
there are some repetitions of facts given in the former 
part of this chapter: — 

[The following rough notes of narrative, in the 
handwriting of the venerable General Sutter, the 
discoverer of gold in California, were found amongst 
the papers of an eminent citizen of this State, re- 
cently deceased, through the kindly courtesy of whose 
widow ive are enabled to give tbem to the public. As 
a relation of incidents in the life of a man held in 
respect by every Californian, these hasty and imper- 
fect memoranda will, it is believed, have a double in- 
terest and a lasting value. We have thought it best 
to preserve as nearly as was practicable, the quaint 
phraseology, ciToneous orthography, and imperfect 
punctuation of the manuscript; giving, in our judg- 
ment, an added charm to the narrative. — San Fran- 
cisco Argonaut.~\ 

"Left the State of Missouri (where 1 has resided 
for a many years) on the 1th a April, 1838, and 
travelled with the party of Men under CaptTripps, of 
the Amer. fur Compy, to their Rendezvous in the 
Rocky Mountains ( Wind River Valley) from there I 
travelled with 6 brave Men to Oregon, as I consid- 
ered myself not strong enough to cross the Sierra 
Nevada and go direct to California (which was my 
intention from my first Start on having got some 



42 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



informations from a Gent'n in New Mexico, who has 
boon in California. 

"Under a good Many Dangers and other troubles I 
have passed the Different forts or trading posts of 
the Hudsons Bay Compy. and arrived at the Mission 
at the Dalls on Columbia River. From this placo I 
crossed right strait through thick & thin, and 
arrived to tho great astonishment of the inhabitants. 
I arrived in 7 days in the Valley of tho Willamette, 
while others with good guides arrived only in 17 days 
previous my Crossing. At fort Vancouver I has been 
very hospitably received and invited to pass tho 
AVintor with tho Gentlemen of the Company, but as 
a Vessel of the Compy was ready to sail for the 
Sandwich Islands, I took a passage in her, in hopes to 
get Soon a Passage from there to California, but 5 
long Months I had to wait to find an Opportunity to 
leave, but not direct to California, except far out of 
my Way to the Russian American Colonies on the 
North West Cost, to Sitka the Residence of the 
Gov'r. (Lat. 57) I remained one Month there and 
delivered the Cargo of the Brig Clementine, as I had 
Charge of the Vessel, and then sailed down the Coast 
in heavy Gales, and entered in Distress in the Port of 
San Francisco, on the 2d of July, 1839. An Officer 
and 15 Soldiers came on board and ordered me out, 
saying that Monterey is the Port ofentiy, & at last 
1 could obtain 48 hours to get provisions (as we 
were starving) and some repairings done on the Brig. 

"In Monterey I arranged my affairs with the Cos- 
turn House, and presented myself to the Govr Alva- 
rado, and told him my intention to Settle here in this 
Country, and that I have brought with me 5 White 
Men 8 Kanacas (two of them married) 3 of the 
Whitemen were Mechanics, he was very glad to hear 
that, and particularly when I told him, that I intend 
to Settle in the interior, on banks of the the river 
Sacramento, because the Indians then at this time 
would not allow white M«n and particularly of the 
Spanish Origin to come near them, and was very 
hostile, and stole the horses from the inhabitants 
near San Jose. I got a General passport for my small 
Colony and permission to select a Territoiy where 
ever I would find it convenient, and to come in one 
Years time again in Monterey to get my Citizenship 
and the title of the Land, which I have done so, and 
not only this, 1 l'eceived a high civil Office. 

"Whenlleft Yerbabuena (now San Francisco) after 
having leaved the Brig and dispatched her back to 
theS. 1. 1 bought several small Boats (Launches) and 
Chartered the Schooner "Isabella" for my Exploring 
Journey to the inland Rivers and particularly to find 
the Mouth of the River Sacramento, as I could find 
Nobody who could give me information, only that 
they Knew some very large Rivers are in the interior. 

" It took me eight days before I could find the 
entrance of the Sacramento, as it is very deceiving 
and very easy to pass by, how it happened to several 
Officers of the Navy afterwards which refused to 
take a pilot. About 10 miles below Sacramento 
City I fell in with the first Indians which was all 
armed & painted & looked very hostile, they was 
about 200 Men, as some of them understood a little 
Spanish I could make a Kind of treaty with them, 
and the two which understood Spanish came with 
me, and made me a little better acquainted with the 
Country, all other Indians on the up River hided 
themselves in the Bushes, and on the Mouth of 
Feather River they runned all away so soon they 
discovered us. I was examining the Country a little 
further up with a Boat, while the larger Crafts let 
go their Ankers, on my return, all the white Men 



came to mo and asked mo, how much longer I in- 
tended to travel! with them in such a Wilderness. 

" Tho following Morning 1 gave Orders to return, 
and entered in the American River, landed at the 
fanner Tannery on the 12th, Augt. 1839. Gave 
Orders to get every thing on Shore, pitch the tents 
and mount the 3 Cannons, called tho white Men, and 
told them that all those which are not contented could 
leave on board the Isabella, next Morning, and that I 
would settle with them imediately, and remain 
alone with the Canaca's, of 6 Men 3 remained, and 3 
of them I gave passage to Ycrbabuena. 

" Tho Indians was first troublesome, and came fre- 
quently and would it not have been for tho Cannons 
they would have Killed us for the sake of my prop- 
erty, which they liked very much, and this intention 
they had very often, how they confessed to me after- 
wards, when on good terms. I had a largo Bull Dog 
which saved my life 3 times, when they came slyly 
near the house in the Night, ho got hold of them 
and marked most severely, in a short time removed 
my Camps on the very spot where now the Ruins 
of Sutters fort stands, made acquaintance with a 
few Indians which came to work for a short time 
making Adobes, and the Canacas was building 3 
grass houses, like it is customary on the Sandwich 
Islands. Before I came up here, 1 purchassed Cattle 
& Horses on tho Rancho of Senor Martinez, and had 
great difficulties & trouble to get them up, and re- 
ceived them at least on the 22d October 1839. Not 
less than 8 Men, wanted to bo in the party, as they 
was afraid of the Indians, and had good reasons to 
be so. 

" Before I got the Cattle we was hunting Deer & 
Elk etc and so afterwards to safe the Cattle as I had 
then only about 500 head, 50 horses & a manada of 
25 mares. One Year that is in the fall 1840, I bought 
1000 head of Cattle of Don Antonio Sunol and many 
horses more of Don Joaquin Gomez and others. In 
the fall 1839 I have built an Adobe house covered 
with Tuleand two other small buildings which in the 
middle of the fort, they was afterwards destroyed 
by fire. At the same time we cut a Road through 
the Woods where the City of Sacramento stand, then 
we made the NeWjEmbarcadero, where the old Zink- 
house stands now. After this it was time to make a 
Garden, and to sow some Wheat &c we broke up the 
soil with poor Californiaploughs, I had a few Califor- 
nians employed as Baqueros, and 2 of them making 
Cal. Carts & stocking the plougs etc. 

"In the Sj>ring 1840, the Indians began to be 
troublesome all aroundme, Killing and Wounding 
Cattle stealing horses, and threatening to attack us 
en Mass, I was obliged to make Capaigns against 
them and punish them severely, a little later about 2 
a 300 was aproching and got United on Cosumne 
River, but I was not waiting for them, left a small 
Garrison at home, Canons & other Arms loaded, and 
left with 6 brave men & 2 Baquero's in the night and 
took them by surprise at Day light, the fighting was 
a little hard, but after having lost about 30 men, 
they was willing to make a treaty with mo, and 
after this lecon they behalved very well, and became 
my best friends and Soldiers, with which I has been 
assisted to conquer the whole Sacramento and a part 
of the San Joaquin Valley. 

"At the time the Communication with tho Bay was 
very long and dangerous, particularly in open Boats, 
it is a great Wonder that we got not swamped a 
many times, all time with an Indian Crew and a 
Canaca at the helm. Once it took mo (in December 
1839.) 16 days to go down to Yerba buena and to 



BIOGRAPHIC SKETCH OF GENERAL SUTTER. 



43 



return, I went down again on the 22d Xber 39. to 
Yerba buena and on account of the inclemency of 
the Weather and the strong current in the River I 
need a whole month (17 days coming up) and nearly 
all the provisions spoiled. 

"On the 23d Augt, 1841. Capt. Ringold of Coma- 
dore Wilkse Exploring Squadron, arrived on the 
Embarcadero, piloted by one of the Launches 
Indian crew, without this they would not have 
found so easy the entrance of the Sacramento. They 
had 6 Whaleboats & 1 Launch 7 Officers and about 
50 men in all, I was very glad indeed to see them, 
sent immediately saddled horses for the Officers, and 
my Clerk with an invitation to come and sec me, at 
their arrival I fired a salut, and furnished tbem 
what they needed, they was right surprised to find 
me up here in this Wilderness, it made a very good 
impression upon the Indians to see so many whites 
are coming to see me, they surveyed the River so far 
as the Bates. 

"September 4th 1841. Arrived the Russian Govr 
Mr. Alexander Rottiheff on board the Schooner Sac- 
ramento, and offered me their whole Establishment 
at Bodega & Ross for sale, and invited me to come 
right off with him, as there is a Russian Vessel at 
Bodega, and some Officers withplein power, to trans- 
act this business with me, and particularly they 
would give me the preference, as they became all 
acquainted with me, during a months stay at Sitka. 
I left and went with him down to the Bay in Com- 
pany with Capt. Ringold's Expedition, what for a 
fleet we thought then, is on the River. Arriving at 
Bodega, we came very soon to terms, from there we 
went to fort Ross where they showed me everything 
and returned to Bodega again, and before the Vessel 
sailed we dined on board the Helena, and closed the 
bargain for $30,000, which has been paid. And other 
property, was a separate account which has been 
first paid. 

"On the 28th of September I dispatched a number of 
men and my Clerk by Land to Bodega, to receive 
the Cattle, Horses, Mules & Sheep, to bring them up 
to Sutter's fort, called then New Helvetia, by crossing 
the Sacramento they lost me from about 2000 head 
about 100, which drowned in the River, but of most 
of them we could safe the hides, our Cal. Banknotes 
at the time. 

"March 6, 1842. Captain Fremont arrived at the 
port with Kit Carson, told me that he was an 
officer of the U. S. and left a party behind in Dis- 
tress and on foot, the few surviving Mules was 
packed only with the most necessary, I received him 
politely and his Company likewise as an old acquaint- 
ance, the next Morning I furnished them with 
fresh horses, & a Vaquero with a pack Mule loaded 
with Necessary Supplies for his Men. Capt. Fre- 
mont found in my Establishment every thing what 
he needed, that he could travell without Delay, he 
could have not found it so by a Spaniard, perhaps 
by a great Many and with loosing a great deal of 
time. I sold him about 60 Mules & about 25 horses, 
and fat young Steers or Beef Cattle, all the Mules & 
horses got Shoed, on the 23d March, all was ready 
and on the 24th he left with his party for the U. 
States. 

"As an officer of the Govt, it was my duty to 
report to the Govt, that Capt. Fremont arrived, 
Genl. Micheltorena dispatched Lieut. Col. Telles 
(afterwards Gov. of Sinalo) with Capt., Lieut., and 
25 Dragoons, to inquire what Captain Fremonts 
business was here; but he was en route as the arrive 
only on the 27th, from this time on Exploring, 



Hunting & Trapping parties has been started, at 
the same time Agricultural & Mechanical business 
was progressing from Year to year, and more No- 
tice has been taken, of my # establishment, it became 
even a fame, and some early Distinguished Travellers 
like Doctor Sandells, Wasncsensky & others, Cap- 
tains of Trading Vessels & Super Cargos, & even 
Californians (after the Indians was subdued) came 
and paid me a visit, and was astonished to see 
what for Work of all kinds has been done. Small 
Emigrant parties arrived, and brought me some very 
valuable Men, with one of those was Major Bidwell 
(he was about 4 Years in my employ). Major Reading 
& Major Hensley with 11 other brave men arrived 
alone, both of these Gentlemen has been 2 Years in 
my employ, with these parties excellent Mechanics 
arrived which was all employed by me, likewise 
good farmers, we made i mediately Amer. ploughs 
was made in my Shops and all kind of work done, 
every year the Russians was bound to furnish me 
with good iron & Steel & files, Articles which could 
not be got here likewise Indian Beeds and the most 
important of all was 100 lb of fine Rifle & 100 lb of 
Canon powder and several 100 lb of Lead (every 
year) with these I was careful like with Gold. 

"June 3d 1846. I left in company of Major Read- 
ing, and most all of the Men in my employ, for a 
Campaign with the Mukelemney Indians, which has 
been engaged by Castro and his Officers to revolu- 
tionize all the Indians against me, to Kill all the 
foreigners, burn their houses, and Wheat fields etc. 
These Mukelemney Indians had great promessess 
and some of them were finely dressed and equiped, 
and those came apparently on a friendly visit to the 
fort and Vicinity and long Conversations with the 
influential Men of the Indians, and one Night a 
Number of them entered in my Potrero (a kind of 
closed pasture) and was Ketching horses to drive 
the whole Cavallada away with them, the Sentinel 
at the fort heard the distant Noise of these Horses, 
and gave due notice, & imediately I left with about 
6 well armed Men and attacked them, but they 
could make their escape in the Woods (where Sac. 
City stands now) and so I left a guard with the 
horses. As we had to cross the Mukelemney River 
on rafts, one of these rafts capsized with 10 Rifles, 
and 6 prs of Pistols, a good supply of Amunition, 
and the clothing of about 24 Men, and Major 
Reading & another Man nearly drowned. 

"June 16th 1846. Merritt & Kit Carson arrived 
with News of Sonoma beeing occupied by the Amer- 
icans, and the same evening arrived as prissoners 
Genl. Vallejo, Don Salvador Vallejo, Lt. Col. Prudon 
& M. Leese, and given under my charge and Care, I 
have treated them with kindness and so good as I 
could, which was reported to Fremont, and he then 
told me, that prissoners ought not to be treated so, 
then 1 told him, if it is not right how I treat them, 
to give them in charge of somebody else. 

"Capt. Montgomery did send an Amer. flag by 
Lieut. Revere than in Command of Sonoma, and 
some dispatches to Fremont, I received the Order to 
hiss the flag by Sunrise from Lt. Revere, long time 
before daybreak, I got ready with loading the 
Canons and when it was day the roaring of the 
Canons got the people all stirring. Some them made 
long faces, as they thought if the Bear flag would 
remain there would be a better chance to rob and 
plunder. Capt. Fremont received Orders to proceed 
to Monterey with his forces, Capt. Montgomery 
provided for the upper Country, established Garri- 
sons in all important places, Yerba buena, Sonoma, 



I11KTOUY OK AMADOR COUNTY. ( 'A LI KollN IA. 



San Jose, and fort Sacramento. Lieut. Missroon 
camo to organize our Garrison better and more 
Numbers of white Men and Indians of* my former 
Soldiers, and gave me the Command of this Fort. 
The Indians have not yeUreceivcd their pay yet for 
their services, only each one a shirt and a pre. of 
pants, & abt. 12 men got Coats. So went the War on 
in California. Capt. Fremont was nearly all time 
engaged in the lower Country and made himself 
Governor, until Genl. Kearney arrived, when an 
other Revolution took place. And Fremont for 
disobeying Orders was made prissoner by Genl. 
Kearney, who took him afterwards with him to the 
U. States by Land across the Mountains. After the 
War I was anxious that Business should go on like 
before, and on the 28th May, 1847, Marshall & 
Gingery, two Millwrights, I employed to survc} r the 
large Millraise for the Flour Mill at Brighton. 

"May 13th, 1847. Mr. Marshall commenced the 
great work of the large Millraise, with ploughs and 
scrapers. 

" July 20th, 1847. Got all the necessary timber 
and frame of the millbuilding. 

" Augt. 25th. Capt Hart of the Mormon Battaillon 
arrived, with a good many of his Men on their 
Way to great Salt Lake, they had Orders for Govt. 
Horses, which I delivered to them, (War Horses) 
not paid for yet. They bought provisions and 
got Blacksmith work done. I employed about 
Eighty Men of them, some as Mechanics, some as 
laborers, on the Mill and Millraise at Brighton, some 
as laborers at the Sawmill at Columa. 

"Augt. 28th, 1847. Marshall moved, with P. 
Wisners family and the working hands to Columa, 
and began to work briskly on the sawmill. 

" Septr. 10th. Mr. Sam'l Brannan returned from 
the great Salt Lake, and announced a large Emigra- 
tion by land. On the 19th the Garrison was 
removed, Lieut't Per Lee took her down to San 
fran cisco. 

" Novr. 1th. Getting with a great deal of trouble 
and with breaking wagons the four Runs of Mill- 
stones, to the Mill Sit (Brighton) from the Mountains. 

"Decembr. 22. Received about 2000 fruit trees 
with great expenses from Fort Ross, Napa Valley 
and other places, which was given in Care of men 
who called themselves Gardeners, and nearly all of 
the trees was neglected by them and died. 

"January 28th, 1848. Marshall arrived in the eve- 
ning, it was raining very heavy, but he told me that 
he came on important business, after we was alone 
in a private Room he showed me the first Specimens 
of Gold, that is he was not certain if it was Gold or 
not, but he thought it might be; immediately I made 
the proof and found that it was Gold, I told him 
even that most of all is 23 Carat Gold; he wished 
that I should come up with him immediately, but I 
told him that I have to give first my orders to the 
people in all my factories and shops. 

"February 1th. Left for the Sawmill attended by 
a Baquero (Olimpio) Avas absent 2d, 3d, 4th, & 5th, 
I examined myself everything and picked up a few 
Specimens of Gold myself in the tail race of the 
Sawmill, this Gold and others which Marshall and 
some of the other laborers gave to me (it* was found 
while in my employ and Wages) I told them that 1 
would a ring got made of it so soon as the Goldsmith 
would be here. I had a talk with my employed 
people all at the Sawmill, 1 told them that as they 
do know now that this Metal is Gold, I wished that 
they would do me the great favor and keep it secret 
only 6 weeks, because my large Flour Mill at Brighton 



would have been in Operation in such a time, which 
undertaking would have been a fortune to mo, and 
unfortunately the people would not keep it secret, 
and so I lost on this Mill at, the lowest calculation 
about $25,000. 

" March 7th. The firs' party of Mormons, em- 
ployed by me left for washing and digging Gold and 
very soon all followed, and left me only the sick and 
the lame behind. And at this time 1 could say that 
eveiy body left me from the Clerk to the Cook. What 
for great Damages I had to suffer in my tannery which 
was just doing a profitable and extensive business. 
and the Vatts was left filled and a quantity of half 
finished leather was spoiled likewisoa large quantity 
of raw hides collected by the farmers and of my own 
killing. The same thing was in every branch of 
business which I carried on at the time. I began to 
harvest my wheat, while others was digging and 
washing Gold, but even the Indians could not be 
keeped longer at Work, they was impatient to run 
to the mines, and other Indians had informed them 
of the Gold and its value; and so I had to leave 
more as | of my harvest in the fields. 

"April 18th, 1848, more curious. people arrived, 
bound for the Mountains. I left for Columa, in 
Company with Major P. B. Reading and Mr. Kcmbel 
(Editor of the Alta-G 'alifornia) we were absent 4 
Days, we was prospecting and found Silver and 
iron or in abundance. 

" April 28th. A great many people more went up 
to the Mountains. This day the Saw mill was in 
Operation and the first Lumber has been sawed in 
the whole upper Country. 

"May 1th. Saml Brannan was building a store at 
Natoma, Mormon Islands, and have done a very 
largo and heavy business. 

" May 15th. Paid of all the Mormons which has 
been employed by me, in building these Mills and 
other Mechanical trades, all of them made their pile, 
and some of them became rich & wealthy, but all of 
them was bound to the great Salt Lake, and spent 
there their fortunes to the honor and Glory of the 
Lord ! 

" May 19th. The great Rush from San Francisco 
arrived at the fort, all my friends and acquaintances 
filled up the houses and the -whole fort, I had only a 
little Indian boy, to make them roasted Ripps, etc. 
as my Cooks left me like every body else, the Mer- 
chants, Doctors, Lawyers, Sea Captains, Merchants, 
etc. all came up and did not know what to do, all 
was in a Confusion, all left their wives and families 
in San Francisco, and those which had none locked 
their Doors, abandoned their houses, offered them 
for sale cheap, a few hundred Dollars House & Lot 
(Lots which are Avorth now $100,000 and more) 
some of these men were just like greazy. Some of 
the Merchants has been the most prudentcst of the 
whole, visited the Mines and returned immediately 
and began to do a very profitable business, and soon 
Vessels came from every where with all Kind of 
Merchandize, the whole old thrash which was laying 
for Years unsold, on the Coasts of South & Central 
Amei'ica, Mexico, Sandwich Islands etc. all found a 
good market here. 

"Mr. Brannan was erecting a very large Warehouse, 
and have done an immense business, connected with 
_ Howard & Green; S. Francisco. 

" May 21th. Saml Kyburg errected or established 
the first Hotel in the fort in the larger building, and 
made a great deal of Money. A great Many traders 
deposited a great deal of goods in my Store (an 
Indian was the Key Keeper and performed very 






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BIOGRAPHIC SKETCH OF GENERAL SUTTER. 



45 



well) afterwards every little Shanty became a Ware- 
house and , Store, the fort was then a veritable 
Bazaar. As white people would not be employed at 
the Time I had a few good Indians attending* to the 
Ferry boat, and every night came up, and delivered 
the received Money for ferryage to me, after deduc- 
tion for a few bottles of brandy, for the whole of 
tbem, perhaps some white people at the time would 
not have acted so honestly. 

" May 25th. The travelling to the Mines was 
increasing from day to day, and no more Notice was 
taken, as the people arrived from South America. 
Mexico, Sandwich Islands, Oregon etc. All the Ships 
Grews, and Soldiers deserted. In the beginning of 
July, Col. Mason our Military Governor, with Cap! 
Sherman (Secretary of State) Capt. Folsom Quar- 
trmstr, and an Escort of which some deserted,- and 
some other Gentlemen, ti'avelled in Company with 
the Governor. 

"As we wanted to celebrate the 4th of July we 
invited the Governor and his suite to remain with 
us, and he accepted. Kyburg gave us a good Diner, 
every thing was pretty Avell arranged. Pinkctt was 
the Orator. It was well done enough for such a new 
Country and in such an excitement and Confusion. 
And from this time on you know how every thing 
was going on here. One thing is certain that the 
people looked on my property as their own, and in 
the Winter of 1849 to 1850. A great Number of 
horses has been stolen from me, Avholc Manadas of 
Marcs driven away and taken to Oregon etc. Nearly 
my whole Stock of Cattle has been Killed, several 
thousands and left me only a very small Quantity. 
The same has been done with my large stock of 
Hogs, whicb was running like ever under nobodies 
care and so it was easy to steal them, I bad not an 
Idea that people could be so mean, and that they 
would do a Wholesale business in Stealing. 

"On the Upper Sacramento, that is, from the Buttes 
downward to the point or mouth of feather River, 
there was most all of my Stock running and during 
the Overflow the Cattle was in a many bands on 
bigh spots like Islands, there was a fine chance to 
approach them in small Boats and shoot them, this 
business has been very successfully done by one 
party of 5 Men (partners) Avhich had besides hired 
people, and Boats Crew's which transported the beef 
to the Market at Sacramento City and furnished 
that City with my own beef, and because these Men 
was nearly alone, on account of the Overflow, and 
Monopolized the Market. 

" In the Soring of 1850, these 5 men divided their 
Spoil of $60,000 clear profits made of Cattle, all o!' 
them left for the Atlantic State; one of them 
returned again in the Winter from 1850 to 51, hired 
a new band of Robers to follow the same business 
and kill of the balance of the few that Avas left. My 
Baqueros found out this Nest of thiefs in ther Camp 
butchering just some head of my Cattle, on their 
return they informed me what they have seen, in 
the neighborhood of the same Camp they saAV some 
more cows shot dead, Avhich the Rascal then butch- 
ered. Immediately I did send to Nicolaus for the 
Sheriff (Jas Hopkins) as then at the time Ave had 
laws in force?!? after all was stolen and destroyed 
the Sheriff arrived at Hock farm I fivrnisbed him a 
Posse of my employed Men. they proceeded over 
on the Sacramento to where the thiefs Avcre en- 
camped, as the Sheriff wanted to arrest them they 
just jumped in their Boats and off they went, the 
Sheriff threatened them to fire at them, but they 
was all, and laughing they Avent at large. 



•'One day my Son Avas riding after Stock a feAv miles 
beloAV Hock farm, he found a Man (his name was 
Owens) butchering one of our finest milch Cows (of 
Durham stock of Chile, which cost $300.) He told 
the Man that he could not take the Meat, that he 
would go home and get people, and so he has done, 
and he got people and a Wagon and returned to the 
Spot, but Owens found it good to clear out. Two 
brothers of this Man, Avas respectable Merchants in 
Lexington, Mo. and afterAvards in Westport well 
acquainted Avith me, he came one day in my house 
and brought me their compliments, I received him 
.well, and afterwards turned out to be a thief. How 
many of this kind came to California Avhich loosed 
their little honor by crossing the Istmus or the plains. 
I had nothing at all to do with speculations, but 
stuck by the plough, but by paying such high Wages, 
and particularly under Kyburg' management, I have 
done this business Avith a heavy loss as the produce 
had no more the Value like before, and from the time 
on Kyburg left I curtailed my business considerable, 
and so far that I do all at present Avith my family 
and a few Indian Servants. I did not speculate, only 
occupied my kind, in the hope that it would be before 
long decided and in my favor by the U. S. Land Com- 
mission; but now already 3 years & two months have 
elapsed, and I am Avaiting iioav very anxiously for 
the Decision, which will revive or bring me to the 
untimely grave. 

" All the other Circumstances you knoAv all your- 
self, perhaps I have repeated many things Avhich 1 
Avrote in the 3 first sheets, because I had them not 
to see Avhat I Avrote, and as it is now several months 
I must have forgotten. Avell it is only a kind of mem- 
orandum, and not a History at all, Only to remember 
you on the different periods when such and such 
things happened. 

<l I need not mention again, that all the Visitors has 
all ways been hospitably received and treated. That 
all the sick and wounded found always Medical As- 
sistance, Gratis, as I had neai'ly all the time a Physi- 
cian in my employ. The Assistance to the Emi- 
grants that is all Avell known. I dont need to write 
anything about this. 

"I think iioav from all this you can form some facts, 
and that you can mention how thousands and thou- 
sands made their fortunes from this Gold Discovery 
produced through my industry and energy, (some 
wise merchants and others in San francisco called 
the building of this Sawmill, another of Sutter's 
folly) and this folly saved not only the Mercantile 
World from bankruptC3 r , but even our General Govt, 
but for me it has turned out a folly, then Avithout 
having discovered the Gold, I would have become the 
richest AA^ealthiest man on the Pacific Shore. 

J. A. Sutter." 

James C. Ward, Avho A r isited Gen. Sutter in 1848, 
says of him : — 

" A Swiss by birth, he held during the reign of 
Charles X. the rank of captain in the French army. 
He purchased the buildings at Ross, just north of 
Bodega, of the Russians, and as he proposed to set- 
tle the wilderness to the north of the Bay of San 
Francisco Avith European immigrants, the Mexican 
Government made him a grant of eleven leagues of 
land on the Sacramento river. After landing he 
camped, surrounded by hostile savages, in the open 
plain Avhcre the fort Avas afterward built, and the 
next morning, after dressing in full uniform, he went, 
accompanied by his Indian servant, botliAvell armed, 
to the Indian village in the woods near by. The 



46 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



savages were informed through the interpreter that 
he came to them as a friend, and if they would help 
him a little with their labor, he would make them 
presents. 

"The Indians were set to work to make adobes, 
of which the fort was built. It is a parallelogram 
in form, with two bastions. In the middle of the 
square is a building two stories high, containing four 
rooms, and a counting-room upstairs. A black- 
smith shop, mill for grinding corn, scrape manufac- 
tory and dwelling are around it, built against the 
walls of the fort. At one time he had a well-drilled 
force of thirty Indians within its walls, with guards 
posted night and day for its defense. No one readied 
it without being fed and lodged. 

" I passed the evening of my arrival, after supper, 
in his company. His manners are polished, and the 
impression he makes on every one is very favorable. 
In figure he is of medium height, rather stout, but 
well made. His head is round, features regular, with 
smiling and agreeable expression; complexion 
healthy and roseate. He wears his hair cut close, 
and his moustache trimmed short, a la militaire. He 
dressed very neatly in frock coat, pantaloons and cap 
of blue, and with his gold-headed malacca in hand, 
you would rather suppose him prepared for a saunter 
on the Boulevards than a consultation with Simplon, 
his Indian alcalde, about hands required for the day's 
work, or ox-teams to be dispatched here and there." 



CHAPTER XL 



THE KING'S ORPHAN. 

His Observations in the Sacramento Valley in 1843 — Indications 
of Gold — Life at Sutter's Fort — Indian Gourmands — Won- 
derful Fertility of the Land. 

In 1843 a young Swedish scholar visited Sutter's 
Fort, and made observations which are now highly 
interesting. He had been educated at a Government 
institution, and, on that account, was known as one 
of the " King's Orphans." One of the requirements 
of the school was that the pupil, after receiving a 
gratuitous education, should travel in foreign lands, 
write out his observations and discoveries, and de- 
posit them in the library of the institution. In pur- 
suance of that duty, the young Swede found his way 
to California, made drawings of the Golden Gate, 
the town of Yerba Buena, and the old Presidio, vis- 
ited and described Sutter's Fort, and, on his waj T 
home, died at New Orleans. His papers fell into the 
hands of Col. T. B. Thorpe, who reported them to 
the Associated Pioneers of the Territorial Hays of 
California. While examining the country surround- 
ing Sutter's Fort, in 1843, the " Orphan " wrote : — 

"The Californias are rich in minerals. Gold, sil- 
ver, lead, oxide of iron, manganese, and copper ore 
are met with throughout the country, the precious 
metals being the most abundant." 

Describing Sutter's establishment, the Swedish 
traveler said : — 

" It has more the appearance of a fort than a farm- 
ing establishment. It is protected by a wall ten feet 
high, made of adobes, or sun-dried brick, having a 
turret with embrasures and loop-holes for fire-arms. 
TwentjM'our pieces of cannon, of different sizes, can 

Against the walls 



be brought to defend the walls. 



on the inside are erected the store-houses of the es- 
tablishment; also, a distillery to make spirits from 
the wheat and grapes, together with shops for coop- 
ers, blacksmiths, saddlers, granaries, and huts for the 
laborers. At the gate-way is always stationed a ser- 
vant, armed as a sentinel. I arrived at the estab- 
lishment in the morning, just as the people were be- 
ing assembled for labor by the discordant notes of a 
Mexican drum. I found Captain Sutter busily em- 
ployed in distributing orders for the day. He re- 
ceived me with great hospitality, and made me feel 
on the instant, perfectly at home under his roof. The 
magical sound of the drum had gathered together 
several hundred Indians, who flocked to their morn- 
ing meal preparatory to the labors of the day, reap- 
ing wheat. The morning meal over, they filed off to 
the field in a kind of military order, armed with a 
sickle and hook. 

" Breakfast was by this time announced for the 
family, which was served up in an out-house adjoin- 
ing the kitchen. It consisted of wholesome corn- 
bread, eggs, ham, an excellent piece of venison, and 
coffee. In the rear of the fort is a large pond, the 
borders of which are planted with willows and other 
trees. This pond furnishes water for domestic use, 
and for irrigating the garden. The want of rain is 
the greatest evil that befalls the country. In the 
front of the fort there are inclosures for horses and 
cattle, and places to deposit corn and wheat. The 
manner of threshing was conducted on a most patri- 
archal plan, the grain being strewn upon the floor 
and then trodden out by horses or cattle, which causes 
it to be much broken and mixed with the earth, and 
almost impossible to clean. 

" The raising of wheat, corn, horses, and cattle, 
constitutes the principal business of Captain Sutter ; 
but he has realized considerable income from the sal- 
mon fisheries of the rivers, the fish being unequaled 
in flavor, and found in the greatest abundance. He 
also organized extensive hunting and trapping expe- 
ditions for the skins of the beaver, otter, elk, deer, 
and antelope, but in this he was greatly interfered 
with by the Hudson Bay Companj^, who sent their 
hunters upon his grounds. He complained to the 
proper authorities, but they paid no attention to the 
matter. His enemies, not content with thus injur- 
ing him, informed the suspicious Mexican Govern- 
ment that Captain Sutter was concocting revolu- 
tionary plans, and that he encouraged deserters and 
other disorderly persons to live at his settlement. 
Captain Sutter replied to these charges by stating 
that he had received the grant of his lands on condi- 
tion that he should obtain settlers, the principal por- 
tion of whom he expected from Europe. To make 
amends, he had encouraged all the stragglers in the 
country to flock to his central position, and they be- 
ing chiefly unmarried men, and some rather lalwess 
spirits from the mountains, they soon formed a very 
independent set of men, and were quite competent 
to defend themselves. 

" The Government at Monterey was not satisfied 
with this explanation, and urged on by envious neigh- 
bors, it was prompted to send to Captain Sutter a 
committee of investigation. The Captain was so en- 
raged at the indignity that he treated the committee 
with great contempt, and said he could defend him- 
self against any force that might be employed against 
him. Whereupon the Government at Monterey 
threatened to send a military force, but thought bet- 
ter of the matter when they learned the character 
of the men Sutter had about him, and the Russian 
armament he had mounted on the walls of the fort; 



SUTTER'S FORT IN 1846. 



47 



but they annoyed him with lawsuits, and, after a 
great deal of difficulty, he was acquitted of any 
treasonable designs against the Government. 

" The Hudson Bay Company having destroyed his 
trade in furs, he retaliated upon them by erecting a 
large distillery, with the product of which he se- 
cretly purchased from the hunters of the Company 
the greater part of their furs, and managed to make 
more by the operation than if he had kept up a large 
hunting establishment of his own. 

" Mr. Sinclair, a partner with Captain Sutter in 
farming pursuits, and a Mr. Grimes, have large and 
productive farms on the American Fork. Mr. Sin- 
clair is from Scotland, is a very interesting gentle- 
man in conversation, and possesses great enterprise 
in business. He was a hunter for many years among 
the Rocky Mountains, acting as a clerk to one of the 
Hudson Bay Company's expeditions. He treated me 
to a rural breakfast, and, in accordance with his old 
habits, broiled his meat on a ramrod stuck up be- 
fore the fire. The limpid and beautiful river near 
which his home is situated, is made doubly attractive 
when compared with the sultry plains in the vicinity, 
upon which good water is not "always to be ob- 
tained." 

The " Orphan " explains the process of Indian sig- 
nal-fires: — 

"A hole is dug in the ground much wider at the 
bottom than at the top; this hole is filled with com- 
bustibles and set on fire; once well ignited the hole 
is nearly closed at the opening. By this means the 
smoke rises to a considerable height in a column, and 
thus information is conveyed to different tribes of the 
aoproach of an enemy or friend, and whether they 
arc coming in large or small bodies." 

The gluttonous habits of the Indians are described: 

" The Indians that constituted the crew of the 
schooner, having been rather stinted of food for a 
day or two, determined on a feast as a recompense 
for their previous fasting. They presented on that 
occasion a spectacle I' had never before witnessed of 
disgusting sensual indulgence, the effect of which on 
their conduct, struck me as being exceedingly 
strange. The meat of the heifer, most rudely cooked, 
was eaten in a voracious manner. After gorging 
themselves they would lie down and sleep for a while, 
and get up and eat again. They repeated this glut- 
tony until they actually lost their senses, and pre- 
sented in their conduct all the phenomena peculiar 
to an over-indulgence in spirituous liquors. They 
cried and laughed by turns, rolled upon the ground, 
dozed, and then sprang up in a state of delirium. 
The following morning they were all wretchedly 
sick, and had the expression peculiar to drunken 
men recovering their reason after a debauch." 

The great fertility of the soil in parts of the Sac- 
ramento valley is referred to as follows : — 

" Vegetables of all kinds can be raised in the great- 
est abundance, frequently two. or three crops a year. 
Wormwood and wild mustard abound as weeds. Oats 
grow wild, and the cultivated grow to an enormous 
height. Wheat crops sown in the Fall, early the fol- 
lowing year have yielded one hundred and fourteen 
bushels to the acre. At the Mission of St. Joseph it 
was ascertained that the yield was one hundred and 
twenty bushels to the acre, and the spontaneous crop 
the following year was sixty bushels to the acre. 
The wheat of Taos has six distinct heads. Clover 
and the grasses are extraordinarily fine and pro- 
ductive. Indian flax grows wild all over the coun- 
try. Horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs thrive well, and 



are possessed in greater or less numbers by all the 
inhabitants, and are tended by herdsmen." 



CHAPTER XII. 
SUTTER'S FORT IN 1846. 

Aspect of Sacramento Valley — Sinclair's Ranch — A Lady Pion- 
eer — Captain Sutter at Home — The Fort Described — Condi- 
tion and Occupation of the Indians — Farm Products and 
Prices — Dinner with the Pioneer — New Helvetia. 

The following interesting and accurate description 
of Sutter's Fort, before the gold discovery, is from 
Edwin Bryant's work, " What I Saw in California," 
published in 1849. Mr. Bryant, with a party of nine 
porsons, left Independence, Missouri, on the 1st of 
May, 1846, and reached Sutter's Fort about midsum- 
mer, Avhen he took the following observations ; — 

"Sept. 1, 1846. A clear, pleasant morning. We 
took a south course down the valley, and at 4 o'clock 
P.M. reached the residence of John Sinclair, Esq., 
on the Rio de los Americanos, about two miles east 
of Sutter's Fort. The valley of the Sacramento, as far 
as we have traveled down it, is from thirty to forty 
miles in width, from the foot of the low benches of 
the Sierra Nevada to the elevated range of hills on 
the western side. The composition of the soil ap- 
pears to be such as to render it highly productive, 
with proper cultivation, of the small grains. The 
ground is trodden up by immense herds of cattle 
and horses, which grazed here early in the Spring, 
when it was wet and apparently miry. "We passed 
through large evergreen oak groves, some of them 
miles in width. Game is very abundant. We fre- 
quently saw deer feeding quietly one or two hundred 
yards from us, and large flocks of antelopes. 

"Mr. Sinclair, with a number of horses and In- 
dians, was engaged in threshing wheat. His crop 
this year, he informed me, would be about three 
thousand bushels. The soil of his rancho, situated 
in the bottom of the Rio de los Americanos, just 
above its junction with the Sacramento, is highly 
fertile. His wheat-fields ai'C secured against the 
numerous herds of cattle and horses, which consti- 
tute the largest item in the husbandry of this coun- 
try, by ditches about five feet in depth, and four or 
five feet over at the surface. The dwelling-house 
and outhouses of Mr. Sinclair arc all constructed 
after American models, and present a most com- 
fortable and neat appearance. It was a pleasant 
scene, after having traveled many months in the 
wilderness, to survey this abode of apparent thrift 
and enjoyment, resembling so nearly those we had 
left in the far-off country behind us. 

"In searching for the ford over the Rio de los 
Americanos, in order to proceed on to Sutter's Fort, 
L saw a lady of a graceful, though fragile figure, 
dressed in the costume of our own countrywomen. 
She was giving some directions to her female ser- 
vants, and did not discover me until I spoke to her, 
and inquired the position of the ford. Her pale and 
delicate, but handsome and expressive countenance, 
indicated much surprise, produced by my sudden 
and unexpected salutation. But, collecting herself, 
she replied to my inquiry in vernacular English, and 
the sounds of her voice, speaking our own language, 
and her civilized appearance, Avere highly pleasing. 
This lady, 1 presume, was Mrs. Sinclair; but I never 
saw her afterwards. 

"Crossing the Rio do los Americanos, the waters 



48 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



of which, at this season, arc quite shallow at the 
ford, we proceeded over a well-beaten road to Sut- 
ter's Fort, arriving there when the sun was about 
an hour and a half high. Riding up to the front 
gate, I saw two Indian sentinels pacing to and fro 
before it, and several Americans, or foreigners (as all 
who are not Californians by birth are here called), 
sitting in the gateway, dressed in buckskin panta- 
loons and blue sailor shirts, with white stars worked 
on the collars. I inquired if Captain Sutter was in 
the fort. A very small man, with a peculiarly sharp 
red face and a most voluble tongue, gave the re 
sponse. He was probably a corporal. He said, in 
substance, that perhaps I was not aware of the 
great changes which had recently taken place in 
California; — that the fort belonged to the United 
States, and that Captain Sutter, although he was in 
the fort, had no control over it. lie was going into 
a minute history of the complicated circumstances 
and events which had produced this result, when I 
reminded him that we were too much fatigued to 
listen to a long discourse, but if Captain Sutter was 
inside the walls, and could conveniently step to the 
gate a moment, I would be glad to see him. A lazy- 
looking Indian with a ruminating countenance, after 
some time spent in parleying, was dispatched with 
my message to Captain Sutter. 

"Captain S. soon 'came to the gate, and saluted us 
with much gentlemanly courtesy and friendly cordi- 
ality. He said that events had transpired in the 
country, which, to his deep regret, had so far de- 
prived him of the control of his own property, that 
he did not feel authorized to invite us inside of the 
walls to remain. The fort, he said, was occupied 
by soldiers under the pay of the United States, and 
commanded by Mr. Kern. I replied to him that, 
although it would be something of a novelty to sleep 
under a roof, after our late nomadic life, it was a 
matter of small consideration. If he would supply 
us with some meat, a little salt, and such vegetables 
as he might have, we neither asked nor desired more 
from his hospitality, which we all knew was liberal, 
to the highest degree of generosity. 

"A servant was immediately dispatched with 
orders to furnish us with a supply of beef, salt, mel- 
ons, onions, and tomatoes, for which no compensa- 
tion would be received. We proceeded immediately 
to a grove of live-oak timber, about two miles west 
of the fort, and encamped within a half a mile of the 
Sacramento river. * * * * 

"He [Captain Sutter], planted himself on the spot 
where his fort now stands, then a savage wilderness, 
and in the midst of numerous and hostile tribes of 
Indians. With the small party of men which he 
originally brought Avith him, he succeeded in defend- 
ing himself against the Indians, until he constructed 
his first defensive building. He told me that, sev- 
eral times being hemmed in by his assailants, he 
had subsisted for many days upon grass alone. 
There is a grass in this valley which the Indians 
eat, that is pleasant to the taste, and nutritious. 
He succeeded by degrees in reducing the Indians to 
obedience, and by means of their labor erected the 
spacious fortification which now belongs to him. 

"The fort is a parallelogram, about five hundred 
feet in length, and one hundred and fifty in breadth. 
The walls are constructed of adobes or sun-dried 
bricks. The main building, or residence, stands near 
the center of the area, or court, inclosed by the 
walls. A row of shops, store-rooms, and barracks, 
:;re inclosed within, and lino the walls on every side. 
Bastions project from the angles, and ordnance, 



mounted in which, sweep the walls. The principal 
gates on the east and the south are also defended 
by heavy artillery, through port-holes pierced in the 
walls. At this time the fort is manned by about 
fifty well-disciplined Indians, and ten or twelve 
white men, all under the pay of the United States. 
These Indians are well clothed and fed. The gar- 
rison is under the command of Mr. Kern, the artist 
of Captain Fremont's exploring expedition. 

"The number of laboring Indians employed by 
Captain Sutter during the seasons of sowing and 
harvest, is from two to .three hundred. Some of 
these are clothed in shirts and blankets, but a large 
portion of them are entirely naked. They are paid 
so much per day for their labor, in such articles of 
merchandise as they may select from the store. 
Cotton cloth and handkerchiefs are what they most 
freely purchase. Common brown cotton cloth sells 
at one dollar per yard. A tin coin issued by Captain 
Sutter circulates among them, upon which is stamped 
the number of days that the holder has labored. 
These stamps indicate the value in merchandise to 
which the laborer or holder is entitled. 

"They are inveterate gamblers, and those who 
have been so fortunate as to obtain clothing, fre- 
quently stake and part with every rag upon their 
backs. The game which they most generally play 
is carried on as follows: Any number which may be 
concerned in it seat themselves cross-legged on the 
ground, in a circle. They are then divided into two 
parties, each of which has two champions or players. 
A ball, or some small article, is placed in the hands 
of the players on one side, which they transfer from 
hand to hand with such sleight and dexterity that 
it is nearly impossible to detect the changes. When 
the players holding the balls make a particular 
motion with their hands, the antagonist players 
guess in which hand the balls are at the time. If 
the guess is wrong, it counts one in favor of the 
playing party. If the guess is right, then it counts 
one in favor of the guessing party, and the balls are 
transferred to them. The count of the game is 
kept with sticks. During the progress of the game, 
all concerned keep up a continual monotonous grunt- 
ing, with a movement of their bodies to keep time 
with their grunts. The articles which arc staked 
on the game are placed iu the center of the ring. 

" The laboring or field Indians about the fort are 
fed upon the offal of slaughtered animals, and upon 
the bran sifted from the ground wheat. This is 
boiled in large iron kettles. It is then placed in 
wooden troughs standing in the court, around which 
the several messes seat themselves, and scoop out 
with their hands this poor fodder. Bad as it is, 
they eat it with an apparent high relish; and no 
doubt it is more palatable and more healthy than 
the acorn mush, or atole, which constitutes the prin- 
cipal food of these Indians in their wild state. 

"The wheat crop of Captain Sutter, the present 
year [1846], is about eight thousand bushels. Tho 
season has not been a favorable one. The average 
yield to the acre, Captain S. estimated at twenty - 
tivc bushels. In favorable seasons this yield is 
doubled; and if we can believe the statements often 
made upon respectable authority, it is sometimes 
quadrupled. ***** The wheat-fields of 
Captain S are secured against the cattle and horses 
by ditches. Agriculture, among the native Califor- 
nians, is in a very primitive state, and although Cap- 
tain S. has introduced some American implements, 
still his ground is but imperfectly cultivated. * * * 

" Wheat is selling at the fort at two dollars and 



^ m&« 





TOMPSON ^WtST MB,, ONVANP. GALi. 



I 



THE HISTORY OF THE DONNER PARTY 



49 



fifty cents per fanega, rather more than two bushels 
English measure. It brings the same price when 
delivered i«,t San Francisco, near the mouth of the 
Bay of San Francisco. It is transported from the 
Sacramento valley to a market in launches of about 
fifty tons burden. Unbolted flour sells at eight dol- 
lars per one hundred pounds. The reason of this 
high price is the scarcity of flouring-mills in the 
country. The mills which are now going up in 
various places will reduce the price of flour, and 
probably they will soon be able to grind all the 
wheat raised in the country. The streams of Cali- 
fornia afford excellent water-power, but the flour 
consumed by Captain Sutter is ground by a very, 
ordinary horse-mill. 

"I saw near the fort a small patch of hemp, which 
had been sown as an experiment, in the spring, and 
had not been irrigated. I never saw a ranker 
growth of hemp in Kentucky. Vegetables of several 
kinds appeared to be abundant, and in perfection. 
********* 

"Captain Sutter's dining-room and his table fur- 
niture do not present a very luxurious appearance. 
The room is unfurnished, with the exception of a 
common deal table standing in the center, and some 
benches, which are substitutes for chairs. The 
table, when spread, presented a correspondingly 
primitive simplicity of aspect and of viands. The 
first course consisted of good soup, served to each 
guest, in a china bowl, with .silver spoons. The 
bowls, after they had been used for this purpose, 
were taken away and cleaned by the Indian servant, 
and were afterwards used as tumblers or goblets, 
from which we drank our water. The next course 
consisted of two dishes of meat, one roasted and one 
fried, and both highly seasoned with onions. Bread, 
cheese, butter, and melons, constituted the dessert. 
********* 

"Such has been the extortion of the Government 
in the way of import duties, that few supplies which 
are included even among the most ordinary elegan- 
cies of life, have ever reached the inhabitants, and 
for these they have been compelled to pay prices 
that would be astonishing to a citizen of the United 
States or of Europe, and such as have impoverished 
the population. As a general fact, they cannot be 
obtained at any price, and hence those who have 
the ability to purchase are compelled to forego their 
use from necessity. 

"The site of the town of Nueva Helvetia, which 
has been laid out by Captain Sutter, is about a mile 
and a half from the Sacramento. It is on an eleva- 
tion of the plain, and not subject to overflow when 
the waters of the river are at their highest known 
point. There arc now but three or four small houses 
in this town, but I have little doubt that it will soon 
become a place of importance. 

"Near thcEmbarcadero of New Helvetia is a large 
Indian 'sweat-house,' or temescal, an appendage of 
most of the rancherias." 



>^«N§^ 



CHAPTER XIII. 
THE HISTORY OF THE DONNER PARTY. 

Scene of the Tragedy — Organization and Composition of the 
Party — Election of George Donner as Captain — Hastings' 
Cut-off — Ascent of the Mountains — Arrival at Donner Lake 
— Snow-storms — Construction of Cabins — ' ' Forlorn Hope 
Party " — Captain Reasin P. Tucker's Relief Party — James 
F. Reed's Relief Party— " Starved Camp "—Third Relief 
Party — Heroism and Devotion of Mrs. George Donner — 
Fourth Relief Party — The Survivors. 

Three miles from Truckee, and resting In the 
green lap of the Sierras, lies one of the loveliest 
sheets of water on the Pacific coast. Tall mountain 
peaks are reflected in its clear waters, revealing a 
picture of extreme loveliness and quiet peace. Yet 
this peaceful scene was the amphitheatre of the most 
tragic event in the annals of earl}' California. " The 
Donner Party " was organized in Sangamon county, 
Illinois, by George and Jacob Donner and James F. 
Reed, in the Spring of 1846. In April, 1846, the 
party set out from Springfield, Illinois, and by the 
first week in May had reached Independence, Mis-, 
souri, where the party was increased until the train 
numbered about two or three hundred wagons, the 
Donner family numbering sixteen; the Reed family, 
seven; the Graves family, twelve; the Murphy family, 
thirteen; these were the principal families of the 
Donner party proper. At Independence, provisions 
were laid in for the trip, and the line of journey taken 
up. In the occasional glimpses we have of the party, 
features of but little interest present themselves, 
beyond the ordinary experience of pioneer life. A 
letter from Mrs. George Donner, written near the 
junction of the North and South Platte, dated June 
16, 1846, reports a favorable journey of four hundred 
and fifty miles from Independence, Missouri, with 
no forebodings of the terrible disasters so soon to 
burst upon them. At Fort Laramie a portion of the 
party celebrated the Fourth of July. Thereafter 
the train passed, unmolested, upon its journey. 
George Donner was elected captain of the train at 
the Little Sandy river, on the 20th of July, 1846, 
from which act it took the name of "The Donner 
Party." 

At Fort Bridger, then a mere trading post, the 
fatal choice was made of the route that led to such 
fearful disasters and tragic death. A new route, via 
Salt Lake, known as Hastings' Cut-off, was recom- 
mended to the party as shortening the distance by 
three hundred miles. After due deliberation, the 
Donner party, of eighty-seven souls (three having 
died) were induced to separate from the larger por- 
tion of the train (which afterwards arrived in Cali- 
fornia in safety) and commenced their journey by 
way of Hastings' Cut-off. They reached Weber 
river, near the head of the cafion, in safety. From 
this point, in their journey, to Salt Lake, almost 
insurmountable difficulties were encountered, and 
instead of reaching Salt Lake in one week, as antici- 
pated, over thirty days of perilous travel were con- 
sumed in making the trip — -most precious time in 



50 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



view of the dangers imminent in the rapidly ap- 
proaching storms of Winter. The story of their 
trials and sufferings, in their journey to the fatal 
camp a1 Donner lake, is terrible; nature and stern 
necessity seemed arrayed against them. On the 
19th of October, near the present site of Wadsworth, 
Nevada, the destitute company were happily repro- 
visioncd by C. T: Stanton; furnished with food and 
mules, together with two Indian vaqueros, by Cap- 
tain Sutter, without compensation. 

At the present site of Reno it was concluded to 
rest. Three or four days' time was lost. This was 
the fatal act. The storm-clouds were already brew- 
ing upon the mountains, only a few miles distant. 
The ascent was ominous. Thick and thicker grew 
the clouds, outstripping in threatening battalions 
the now eager feet of the alarmed emigrants, until, 
at Prosser creek, three miles below Truckce, October 
28, 1846, a month earlier than usual, the storm set 
in, and they found themselves in six inches of newly- 
fallen snow. On the summit it was already from two 
to five feet deep. The party, in much confusion, 
finally reached Donner lake in disordered fragments. 
Frequent and desperate attempts were made to cross 
the mountain tops, but at last, baffled and despairing, 
they returned to camp at the lake. The storm now 
descended in all its pitiless fury upon the ill-fated 
emigrants. Its dreadful import was well understood, 
as laden with omens of suffering and death. With 
slight interruptions, the storm continued for several 
days. The animals were literally buried alive and 
frozen in the drifts. Meat was hastily prepared from 
their frozen carcasses, and cabins rudely built. One, 
the Schallenberger cabin, erected November, 1844, 
was already standing, about a quarter of a mile be- 
low the lake. This the Breen family appropriated. 
The Murphys erected one three hundred yards from 
the lake, marked by a large stone twelve feet high. 
The Graves family built theirs near Donner creek, 
three-quarters of a mile further down the stream, 
the three forming the apexes of a triangle; the 
Breen and Murphy cabins were distant from each 
other about one hundred and fifty yards. The Don- 
ner brothers, with their families, hastily constructed 
a brush shed in Alder Creek valley, six or seven 
miles from the lake. Their provisions were speedily 
consumed, and starvation, with all its grim attend- 
ant horrors, stared the poor emigrants in the face. 
Day by day, with aching hearts and paralyzed ener- 
gies, they awaited, amid the beating storms of the 
Sierras, the dread revelation of the morrow^ ''hoping 
against hope " for some welcome sign. 

On the sixteenth day of December, 1846, a party 
of seventeen were enrolled to attempt |he hazardous 
journey over the mountains, to press into the valley 
beyond for relief. Two returned, and the remaining 
fifteen pressed on, including Mary Graves and her 
sister; Mrs. Sarah Fosdick, and several other women, 
the heroic C. T. Stanton and the noble F. W. Graves 
(who left his wife and seven children at the lakes 



to await in vain his return) being the leaders. This 
was the " Forlorn Hope Party," over whose dreadful 
Bufferings and disaster we must throw a veil. A de- 
tailed account of this party is given from the graphic 
pen of C. F. McGlashan, and lately published in book 
form from the press of Crowley & McGlashan, pro- 
prietors of the Truckee JiepuMican, to which we take 
pleasure in referring the reader. Death in its most 
awful form reduced the wretched company to seven — 
two men and five women — when suddenly tracks 
were discovered imprinted in the snow. " Can any 
one imagine," says Mary Graves in her recital, " the 
joy these foot-prints gave us ? We ran as fast as our 
strength would carry us." Turning a sharp point 
they suddenly came upon an Indian rancheria. The 
acorn-bread offered them by the kind and awe- 
stricken savages was eagerly devoured. But on they 
pressed with their Indian guides, only to repeat their 
dreadful sufferings, until at last, one evening about 
the last of January, Mr. Eddy, with his Indian guide, 
preceding the party fifteen miles, reached Johnson's 
ranch, on Bear river, the first settlement on the 
western slope of the Sierras, when relief was sent 
back as soon as possible and the remaining six sur- 
vivors were brought in next day. It had been thir- 
ty-two days since they left Donner lake. No tongue 
can tell, no pen portray, the awful suffering, the ter- 
rible and appalling straits, as well as the noble deeds 
of heroism that characterized this march of death. 
The eternal mountains, whose granite faces bore wit- 
ness to their sufferings, are fit monuments to mark 
the last resting-place of Charles T. Stanton, that cul- 
tured, heroic soul, who groped his way through the 
blinding snow of the Sierras to immortality. The 
divinest encomium — " He gave his life as a ransom 
for many " — is his epitaph, foreshadowed in his own 
noble words, "I will bring aid to these famishing 
people or lay down my life." 

Nothing could be done, in the meantime, for the 
relief of the sufferers at Donner lake, without 
securing help from Fort Sutter, which was speedily 
accomplished by John Rhodes. In a week, six men, 
fully provisioned, with Captain Reasin P. Tucker at 
their head, reached Johnson's ranch, and in ten or 
twelve days' time, with provisions, mules, etc., the 
first relief party started for the scene at Donner lake. 
It was a fearful undertaking, but on the morning of 
the 19th of February, 1847, the above party began 
the descent of the gorge leading to Donner lake. 

We have purposely thrown a veil over the dread- 
ful sufferings of the stricken band left in their 
wretched hovels at Donner lake. Reduced to the 
verge of starvation, many died (including numerous' 
children, seven of whom were nursing babes) who, 
in this dreadful state of necessity, were summarily 
disposed of. Rawhides, moccasins, strings, etc., 
were eaten. But relief was now close at hand for 
the poor, stricken sufferers. On the evening of the 
19th of February, 1847, the stillness of death that 
had settled upon the scene was broken by pro- 



THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 



51 



longed shouts. In an instant the painfully sensitive 
ears of the despairing watchers caught the welcome 
sound. Captain Tucker, with his relief party, had 
at last arrived upon the scene. Every face was 
bathed in tears, and the strongest men of the relief 
party melted at the appalling sight, sat down, and 
wept with the rest. But time was precious, as storms 
were imminent. The return party was quickly gath- 
ered. Twenty-three members started, among them 
several women and children. Of this number two were 
compelled to return, and three perished on the jour- 
ney. Many hardships and privations were expe- 
rienced, and their provisions were soon entirely 
exhausted. Death once more stared them in the 
face, and despair settled upon them. But assistance 
was near at hand. James F. Beed, who had pre- 
ceded the Donner party by some months, suddenly 
appeared with the second relief party, on the 
25th of February, 1S47. The joy of the meeting- 
was indescribable, especially between the family and 
the long-absent father. Be-provisioned, the party 
pressed on, and gained their destination after severe 
suffering, with eighteen members, only three having 
perished. Beed continued his journey to the cabins 
at Donner lake. There the scene was simply inde- 
scribable; starvation and disease were fast claiming 
their victims. March 1st (according to Breen's 
diary) Beed and his party arrived at the camp. 
Proceeding directly to his cabin, he was espied by 
his little daughter (who, with her sister, was carried 
back by the previous party) and immediately recog- 
nized with a cry of joy. Provisions were carefully 
dealt out to the famishing people, and immediate 
steps were taken for the return. Seventeen com- 
prised this party. Half-starved and completely 
exhausted, they were compelled to camp in the 
midst of a furious storm, in which Mr. Beed barely 
escaped with his life. This was " Starved Camp/' 
and from this point Mr. Beed, with his two little 
children and another person, struggled ahead to 
obtain hasty relief, if possible. 

On the second day after leaving " Starved 
Camp," Mr. Beed and the three companions were 
overtaken by Cady and Stone, and on the night of 
the third day, reached Woodworth's camp, at Bear 
valley, in safety. The horrors of " Starved Camp " 
beggar all description, indeed, require none. The 
third relief party, composed of John Stark, Howard 
Oakley, and Charles Stone, were nearing the rescue, 
while W. H. Foster and W. H. Eddy (rescued by a 
former part}') were bent on the same mission. 
These, with Hiram Miller, set out from Woodworth's 
camp on the following morning after Beed's arrival. 
The eleven were duly reached, but were in a starving- 
condition, and nine of the eleven were unable to 
walk. By the noble resolution and herculean 
efforts of John Stark, a part of the number were 
borne and urged onward to their destination, while 
the other portion was compelled to remain and 
await another relief party. When the third relief 



part}", under Foster and Eddy, arrived at Donner 
lake, the sole survivors of Alder creek were George 
Donner, the captain of the company, and his heroic 
and faithful wife, whose devotion to her dying 
husband caused her own death during the last and 
fearful days of waiting for the fourth relief. George 
Donner knew he was dying, and urged his wife to 
save her life and go with her little ones, with the 
third relief, but she refused. Nothing wd!s more 
heart-rending than her sad parting with her beloved 
little ones, who wound their childish arms lovingly 
around her neck and besought her with mingled 
tears and kisses to join them. But duty prevailed 
over affection, and she l'etraced the weary distance 
to die with him whom she had promised to love and 
honor to the end. Such scenes of anguish are seldom 
witnessed on this sorrowing earth, and such acts of 
triumphant devotion are among her most golden 
deeds. The snowy cerements of Donner lake 
enshrouded in its stilly whiteness no purer life, no 
nobler heart than Mrs. George Donner's. The 
terrible recitals that close this awful tragedy we 
willingly omit. 

The third relief party rescued four of the last five 
survivors; the fourth and last relief party rescued 
the last survivor, Lewis Keseberg, on the 7th of 
April, 1847. Ninety names are given as members of 
the Donner party. Of these forty-two perished, six 
did not live to reach the mountains, and forty-eight 
survived. Twenty-six, and possibly twenty-eight, 
out of the forty-eight survivors are living to-day — 
several residing in San Jose, Calistoga, Los Gatos, 
Marysvillc, and in Oregon. 

Thus ends this narrative of horrors, without a 
parallel in the annals of American history, of appall- 
ing disasters, fearful sufferings, heroic fortitude, self- 
denial and heroism. 



C H A P T E B XIV. 
THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 

Early Reports and Discoveries — Marshall's Great Discovery at 
Sutter's Mill — His Account of the Event — Views of the 
Newspapers of that Time — Political and Social Revolu- 
tion — Great Rush to the Mines — Results — General Sutter's 
Account of the Gold Discovery — Building of Saw-Mill. 

From the first discovery of California by the Span- 
iards the impression prevailed that the country was 
rich in silver, gold, and precious stones. When set- 
ting out on his northern expedition, the object of 
Cortez was to find another country like Hexico, in- 
habited by a semi-civilized people, whose rich ti'eas- 
ures he might appropriate; and afterwards there 
existed among the inhabitants of New Spain a strong 
belief in the great riches of the new province, both 
in gold and precious stones. The first published 
report of gold in California is found in Hakluyt s 
account of Sir Francis Drake's expedition to this coast 
in 1579. The historian of the voyage says: --There 
is no part of the earth here to be taken up wherein 
there is not a reasonable quantity of gold or silver.' 



52 



1 1 1 STORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



It is not related that any of Drake's men penetrated 
into the interior of the country or made any search 
for these metals; and, since neither gold nor silver 
is found in the neighborhood of Drake's or San Fran- 
cisco bay, it is to be inferred that this statement 
was a falsehood, uttered for the purpose of giving 
importance to Drake's supposed discovery. 

There is no further account of gold or silver dis- 
coveries for two hundred and twenty-three years, 
until 1802, when it is said that silver was found at 
Alizal, in Monterey county, but the mine never pro- 
duced anything of consequence. Manfras says that 
gold was found in San Diego county in 1828; but as 
the discovery had not been heard of by Alexander 
Forbes, the historian of California, in 1835, it could 
not have been of any importance. On the contrary, 
Forbes, in his book of that date, says: "No min- 
erals of particular importance have yet been found 
in Upper California, nor any ores of metals." . In 
another place, referring to Hijar's migration to Cali- 
fornia in 1833, he says: " There were goldsmiths in 
the party proceeding to a country where no gold 
existed." Mr. Forbes was then the British Yice- 
Consul at Monterey, and was doing all in his power 
to interest the English Government in the country; 
it is therefore certain that up to that time — 1835 — 
no mineral discoveries of any consequence had been 
made in the province. 

The first mine to produce any noticeable amount 
of precious metal was the gold placers in the canon 
of the San Francisquito creek, forty -five miles north- 
west of Los Angeles. It was discovered about the 
year 1838,. and was worked continuously for ten 
years, when it was deserted for the richer discov- 
eries in the Sacramento basin. Its total yield was 
probably not over sixty thousand dollars or about 
six thousand dollars a year. 

In 1842, James D. Dana, the geologist and miner- 
alogist with Wilkes' Exploring Expedition, traveled 
from the northern frontier through the Sacramento 
basin to the Bay of San Francisco, and afterwards 
published a work in which he said: " The gold rocks 
and veins of quartz were observed by the author in 
1842, near the IJmpqua river, in southern Oregon, 
and pebbles from similar rocks were met with along 
the shores of the Sacramento, in California, and the 
resemblance to other gold districts was remarked; 
but there was no opportunity of exploring the 
country at the time." Mr. Dana's professional 
knowledge enabled him to perceive certain indica- 
tions of gold, but no practical discoveries were made. 

On the 4th of May, 1846, Thomas O. Larkin, then 
United States Consul at Monterey, wrote to the Sec- 
retary of State as follows: "There is said to be 
black lead in the country at San Fernando, near 
San Pedro. By washing the sand in a plate, any 
person can obtain from one to five dollars per day of 
gold that brings seventeen dollars per ounce in Boston . 
The gold has been gathered for two or three years, 
though but few persons have the patience to look for 



it. On the south-west end of the Island of Catalina 
there is a silver mine from which silver has been 
extracted. There is no doubt that gold, silver, 
quicksilver, copper, lead, sulphur and coal mines 
are to be found all over California, and it is equally 
doubtful whether, under their present owners, they 
will ever be worked." Till May, 184G, no productive 
mines were in operation, except the one on San 
Francisquito creek, in what is now Los Angeles 
county. 

It was reserved for James W. Marshall to make 
the great discovery, on the 19th of January, 1848, 
at Sutter's mill, on the South Fork of the American 
river, near the present town of Coloma, in EI Dorado 
county. 

No account of the memorable event can be so 
interesting as that of Mr. Marshall himself, who in 
a letter of January 28, 1856, says: — 

"Towards the end of August, 1847, Captain Sut- 
ter and I formed a copartnership to build and run a 
saw-mill upon a site selected by myself (since known 
as Coloma). We employed P. L. Weimer and fam- 
ily, to remove from the fort (Sutter's Fort) to the 
mill-site to cook and labor for us. Nearly the first 
work done was the building of a double log cabin, 
about half a mile from the mill-site. We commenced 
the mill about Christmas. Some of the mill hands 
wanted a cabin near the mill. This was built, and 
I went to the fort to superintend the construction of 
the mill irons, leaving orders to cut a narrow ditch 
where the race was to be made. Upon my return, 
in January, 1848, I found the ditch cut as directed, 
and those who were working on the same were 
doing so at a great disadvantage, expending their 
labor upon the head of the race instead of the foot. 

"I immediately changed the course of things, and 
upon the 19th of the same month, January, dis- 
covered the gold near the lower end of the race, 
about two hundred yards below the mill. William 
Scott was the second man tosee the metal. He was 
at work at a carpenter's bench near the mill. I 
showed the gold to him. Alexander Stephens, 
James Brown, Henry Biglcr, and William Johnston, 
were likewise working in front of the mill, framfng 
the upper story. They were called up next, and, of 
course, saw the precious metal. P. L. Weimer and 
Charles Bennett were at the old double log cabin 
(where Hastings & Co. afterwards kept a store), 
and, in my opinion, at least half a mile distant. 

"In the meantime we put in some wheat and peas, 
nearly five acres, across the river. In February, the 
Captain (Captain Sutter) came to the mountains for 
the first time. Then we consummated a treaty 
with the Indians, which had been previously nego- 
tiated. The tenor of this was that we were to pay 
them two hundred dollars yearly in goods, at Yerba 
Buena prices, for the joint possession and occupation 
of the land with them; they agreeing not to kill our 
stock, viz.: horses, cattle, hogs or sheep, nor burn 
the grass within the limits fixed by the treaty. At 
the same time, Captain Sutter, myself, and Isaac 
Humphrey, entered into a copartnership to dig gold. 
A short time afterwards, P. L. Weimer moved away 
from the mill, and was away two or three months, 
when he returned. With all the events that sub- 
sequently occurred, you and the public are well in- 
formed." 




i 8" 




rOMPSON 4 W£«ST ^</Q GAt\i*NOX*t-. 



THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 



53 



The following additional particulars of the dis- 
coveiy appeared in the Coloma Argus in the latter 
part of the year 1855, and were cvidentlj'' derived 
from Weimer himself : — 

"That James W. Marshall picked up the first 
piece of gold, is beyond doubt. Peter L. Wimmer 
(Weimer), who resides in this place, states positively 
that Mr. Marshall picked up the gold in his presence; 
they both saw it, and each spoke at the same time, 
'What's that yellow stuff?' Marshall being a step 
in advance picked it up. This first piece of gold 
is now in the possession of Mrs. Wimmer, and weighs 
six penny-weights, eleven grains. The piece was 
given to her by Marshall himself. * * * The 
dam was finished early in January, the frame for 
the mill also erected, and the flume and bulk-head 
completed. It was at this time that Marshall and 
Wimmer adopted the plan of raising the gate during 
the night to wash out sand from the mill-race, clos- 
ing it during the day, when work would be con- 
tinued with shovels, etc. Early in February — the 
exact day is not remembered — in the morning, after 
shutting off the water, Marshall and Wimmer walked 
down the race together to see what the water had 
accomplished during the night. Having gone about 
twenty yards below the mill, they both saw the 
piece of gold mentioned, and Marshall picked it up. 
After an examination, the gold was taken to the 
cabin of Wimmer, and Mrs. Wimmer instructed to 
boil it in saleratus water; but, she being engaged in 
making soap, pitched the piece in the soap-kettle, 
where it was boiled all day and all night. The fol- 
lowing morning the strange piece of stuff was fished 
out of the soap, all the brighter for the boiling it 
had received. Discussion now commenced, and all 
expressed the opinion that perhaps the yellow sub- 
stance might be gold. Little was said on the sub- 
ject; but every one each morning searched in the 
race for more, and every day found several small 
scales. The Indians 'also picked up many small 
thin pieces, and carried them always to Mrs. Wimmer. 

''• About three weeks after the first piece was ob- 
tained, Marshall took the fine gold, amounting to 
between two and three ounces, and went below to 
have the strange metal tested. On his return, he 
informed Wimmer that the stuff was gold. All 
hands now began to search for the 'root of all evil.' 
Shortly after Captain Sutter came to Coloma, when 
he and Marshall assembled the Indians, and bought 
of them a large tract of country about Coloma, in 
exchange for a lot of beads and a few cotton hand- 
kerchiefs. They, under color of this Indian title, 
required one-third of all the gold dug on their 
domain, and collected at this rate until the Fall of 
1848, when a mining party from Oregon declined 
paying 'tithes,' as they called it. 

"During February, 1818, Marshall and Wimmer 
went down the river to Mormon Island, and there 
found scales of gold on the rocks. Some weeks later 
they sent a Mr. Henderson, Sydney Willis, and Mr. 
Fifield, Mormons, down there to dig, telling them 
that that place was better than Coloma. These 
were the first miners at Mormon Island." 

In a little work entitled " Mining in the Pacific 
States," published by H. H. Bancroft & Co., in 1861, 
Mr. John S. Hittell presents the following interest- 
ing facts concerning the great discovery: — 

"Marshall was a man of an active, enthusiastic 
mind, and he at once attached great importance to 



his discovery. His ideas, however, were vague; he 
knew nothing about gold-mining; he did not know 
how to take advantage of what he had found. Only 
an experienced gold-miner could understand the 
importance of the discovery, and make it of practical 
value to all the world. That gold-miner, fortu- 
nately, was near at hand; his name was Isaac Hum- 
phrey. He was residing in the town of San Fran- 
cisco, in the month of February, when a Mr. Bennett, 
one of the party employed at Marshall's mill, went 
down to that place with some of the dust to have it 
tested; for it was still a matter of doubt whether 
this yellow metal really was gold. Bennett told his 
errand to a friend whom he met in San Francisco, 
and this friend introduced him to Humphrey, who 
had been a gold-miner in Georgia, and was therefore 
competent to pass an opinion upon the stuff. Hum- 
phrey looked at the dust, pronounced it gold, at the 
first glance, and expressed a belief that the diggings 
must be rich. He made inquiries about the place 
where the gold Avas found, and subsequent inquiries 
about the trustworthiness of Mr. Bennett, and on 
the 7th of March he was at the mill. He tried 
to induce several of his friends in San Francisco to 
go with him; they all thought his expedition a fool- 
ish one, and he had to go alone. He found that 
there was some talk about the gold, and persons 
would occasionally go about looking for pieces of it; 
but no one was engaged in mining, and the work of 
the mill was going on as usual. On the 8th he 
went out prospecting with a pan, and satisfied him- 
self that the country in that vicinity was rich in 
gold. He then made a rocker and commenced the 
business of washing gold; and thus began the busi- 
ness of mining in California. Others saw how he 
did it, followed his example, found that the work 
was profitable, and abandoned all other occupations. 
The news of their success spread, people flocked to 
the place, learned how to use the rocker, discovered 
new diggings, and, in the course of a few months, 
the country had been overturned by a social and 
industrial revolution. 

"Mr. Humphrey had not been at work more than 
three or four days before a Frenchman, called Bap- 
tiste, who had been a gold-miner in Mexico for many 
years, came to the mill, and he agreed with Hum- 
phrey that California was very rich in gold. He, 
too, went to work, and being an excellent prospector, 
he was of great service in teaching the new-comers 
the principles of prospecting and mining for gold, 
principles not abstruse, yet not likely to suggest 
themselves, at first thought, to men entirely igno- 
rant of the business. Baptiste had been employed 
by Captain Sutter to saw timber with a whip-saw, 
and had been at work for two years at a place, since 
called Weber, about ten miles eastward from Coloma. 
When he saw the diggings at the latter place, he at 
once said there were rich mines where he had been 
sawing, and he expressed surprise that it had never 
occurred to him before, so experienced in gold-min- 
ing as he was; but afterwards he said it had been 
so ordered by Providence, that the gold might not 
be discovered until California should be in the hands 
of the Americans. 

"About the middle of March, P. B. Beading, an 
American, now a prominent and wealthy citizen of 
the State, then the owner of a large ranch on the 
western bank of the Sacramento river, near where 
it issues from the mountains, came to Coloma, and 
after looking about at the diggings, said that if simi- 
larity in the appearance of the country could be 
taken as a guide, there must be gold in the hills 



54 



HISTORY OK AMADOR' COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



near his ranch; and he went off, declaring his in- 
tention to go hack and make an examination of 
ihein. John Bidwell, another American, now a 
wealthy and influential citizen, then residing on his 
ranch on the hank of Feather river, came to Coloma 
about a week later, and he said there must be gpld 
near his ranch, and he went off with expressions 
similar to those used by Reading. In a lew week's 
news came that Reading had found diggings near 
Clear creek, at the head of the Sacramento valley, 
and was at work there with his Indians; and not 
long after, it was reported that Bidwell was at work 
with his Indians on a rich bar of Feather river, 
since called Bidwell's Bar." 

Although there were two newspapers, the Cali- 
fornian and Star, published in San Francisco, they 
do not seem to have been either very credulous or 
very enterprising. They did not hear of the dis- 
covery till some weeks after the great event; or, if 
they did hear of it, they did not credit the report. 
The first published notice of the gold discovery ap- 
peared in the Calif ornian on the fifteenth of March, 
nearly two months after the event, and was as fol- 
lows: — 

"Gold Mine Found. — In the newly-made race- 
way of the saw-mill recently erected by Captain 
Sutter, on the American fork, gold has been found 
in considerable quantities. One person brought 
thirty dollars' worth to New Helvetia, gathered 
there in a short time. California, no doubt, is rich 
in mineral wealth; great chances here for scientific 
capitalists. Gold has been found in almost every 
part of the country." 

Three days afterwards the Star made the follow- 
ing brief allusion to the subject: — 

"We were informed a few days since that a very 
valuable silver mine was situated in the vicinity of 
this place, and again, that its locality was known. 
Mines of quicksilver are being found all over the 
country. Gold has been discovered in the northern 
Sacramento district, about forty miles above Sutter's 
Fort. Rich mines of copper are said to exist north 
of these bays." 

The Star of March 25th says: "So great is the 
quantity of gold taken from the new mines recently 
found at New Helvetia, that it has become an article 
of traffic in that vicinity." 

It was three months after Marshall's discovery, 
before the San Francisco papers announced that 
gold-mining had become a regular and profitable 
business. The Calif ornian of April 26th sa3 T s: — 

"Gold Mines op the Sacramento. — From a gen- 
tleman just from the gold region, we learn that many 
new discoveries have very recently been made, and 
it is fully ascertained that a large extent of country 
abounds with that precious mineral. Seven men, with 
picks and spades, gathered nine thousand six hun- 
dred dollars within fifteen days. Many persons are 
settling on the lands with the view of holding pre- 
emptions, but as yet every person takes the right to 
gather all he can, without any regard to claims. 
The largest piece yet found is worth six dollars." 

The Star of April 1, 1848, contained an elaborate 
article on the resources of California, giving due 
credence and importance to the great event which 



was so soon to vitalize the sluggish province, in 
which the writer said:— - 

"It would be utterly impossible at present to make 
a eon-eel estimate of the mineral wealth of Cali- 
fornia. Popular attention has been but lately 
directed to it. But the discoveries that have already 
been made will warrant us in the assertion that 
California is one of the richest mineral countries in 
the world. Gold, silver, quicksilver, iron, copper, 
lead, sulphur, saltpetre, and other mines of great 
value have already been found. We saw, a few days 
ago, a beautiful specimen of gold from the mine 
newly discovered on the American fork. From all 
accounts the mine is immensely rich, and already 
we learn the gold from it, collected at random and 
without any trouble, has become an article of 
trade at the upper settlements. This precious metal 
abounds in this country. We have heard of several 
other newly-discovered mines of gold, but as these 
reports are not yet authenticated we shall pass over 
them. However, it is well known that there is a 
placer of gold a few miles from the ciudad de Los 
Angeles, and another on the San Joaquin." 

The California?}, of August 14, 1848, contained an 
article descriptive of the process and implements of 
gold-mining at that time, and having related the 
particulars of the discovery at Sutter's mill, the 
writer continues: — 

"It soon began to attract attention, and some 
persons discovered gold in the river below, and for 
some distance above the mill, in large quantities; 
so much so that persons who only gave credit to 
one-third of what was said about it left their homes 
and went to work in the mines. It was the work 
of but a few weeks to bring almost the entire popu- 
lation of the Territory together, to pick up the 
precious metal. The. result has been that in less 
than four months, a total revolution has been effected 
in the prospects and fate of Alta California. Then, 
the capital was in the hands of a few individuals 
engaged in trade and speculation; now, labor has 
got the upper hand of capital, and the laboring men 
hold the great mass of the wealth of the country — 
the gold. 

"There are now about four thousand white per- 
sons, besides a number of Indians, engaged in the 
mines; and from the fact that no capital is required, 
they are working in companies, on equal shares, or 
alone, with their baskets. In one part of the mine, 
called the dry-diggings, no other implement is nec- 
essary than an ordinary sheath-knife, to pick the 
gold from the rocks. In other parts, where the 
gold is washed out, the machinery is very simple, 
being an ordinary trough made of plank, round on 
the bottom, about ten feet long, and two feet wide 
at the top, with a riddle, or sieve, at one end, to 
catch the larger gravel, and three or four small bars 
across the bottom, about half an inch high, to keep 
the gold from going out with the dirt and water at 
the lower end. This machine is set upon rockers, 
which give a half-rotary motion to the water and 
dirt inside. But far the largest number use nothing 
but a large tin-pan, or an Indian basket, into which 
they place the dirt, and shake it about until the gold 
gets to the bottom, and the dirt is carried over the 
side in the shape of muddy water. It is necessary, 
in some cases, to have a crowbar, pick, or shovel; 
but a great deal is taken up with large horns, shaped 
spoon-fashion at the large end. 



THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 



00 



"From the fact that no capital is necessary, a fair 
competition in labor, without the influence of capital, 
men who were only able to procure one month's 
provisions have now thousands of dollars of the 
precious metal. The laboring class have now become 
the capitalists of the country. 

" As to the richness of the mines, were we to set 
down half the truth, it would be looked upon in 
other countries as a Sinbad story, or the history of 
Aladdin's lamp. Many persons have collected in 
one day, of the finest grade of gold, from three to 
eight hundred dollars, and for many days together 
averaged from seventy-five to one hundred and fifty 
dollars. Although this is not universal, yet the 
general average is so well settled, that when a man 
with his pan or basket does not easily gather from thir- 
ty to forty dollars in a day, he moves to another place; 
so that taking the general average, including the 
time spent in moving from place to place and in 
looking for better diggings, we are of the opinion 
that we may safely set down an ounce of pure gold, 
or sixteen dollars per day, to the man. Suppose 
there are four thousand persons at work, they will 
add to the aggregate wealth of the Territoiy about 
four thousand ounces, or sixty-four thousand dollars 
a day. 

" Four months ago, flour was sold in this market 
(San Francisco) for four dollars per hundred; now it 
is sixteen. Beef cattle were then six; now they are 
thirty. Read} T -made clothing, gi»oceries, and other 
goods, have not risen in the same proportion, but are 
at least double their former cost. If we make bread 
and meat the standard by which to determine the 
value of gold, then it is worth only one-fourth of 
what it is elsewhere. But if gold and silver be the 
standard, then the bread and meat is worth four 
times what it was. But, the relative value of the 
grain-gold, compared with gold and silver coin, can 
only be changed by the action of Government; for, 
however abundant the gold may be, it must produce 
its relative value in coin; and, while a five-dollar 
gold-piece will be received at the Treasury as five 
dollars, so long must an ounce of gold be worth 
sixteen dollars. 

" As to the future hopes of California, her course 
is onward, with a rapidity that will astonish the 
world. Her unparalleled gold mines, silver mines, iron 
ore, and lead, with the best climate in the world, 
and the richest soil, will make it the garden-spot of 
creation.' 

The Califomian, of September 23, 1848, gives the 
following graphic account of the grand rush to the 
gold mines: — 

"It would seem that but little doubt was enter- 
tained of its being the Simon-pure stuff; for operations 
immediately ceased at the mill, and all hands com- 
menced searching for gold. It was soon found that 
gold abounded all along the American fork, for a 
distance of thirty miles. But little credit however 
was given the report, though occasionally a solitary 
gold-hunter might be seen stealing down to the 
launch, with a pick and shovel, more that half- 
ashamed of his credulity. Sometime during the 
month of May a number of credible persons arrived 
in 'town from the scene of operations, bringing spec- 
imens of the ore, and stating that those engaged in 
collecting the precious metal were making from three 
to ten dollars per day. Then commenced the grand 
rush. The inhabitants throughout the Territory 
were in a commotion. Large companies of men, 
women, and children could be seen on every road 



leading to the mines; their wagons loaded down 
with tools for digging, provisions, etc. Launch after 
launch left the wharves of our city (San Francisco) 
crowded with passengers and freight, for the Sacra- 
mento. Mechanical operations of every kind ceased. 
Whole streets, that were but a week before alive 
with a busy population, were entirely deserted, and 
the place wore the appearance of a city that had 
been suddenly visited bj a devastating plague. To 
cap the climax, the newspapers were obliged to stop 
printing, for want of readers. 

" Meantime, our mercantile friends were doing an 
unwonted stroke of business. Every arrival from 
the mining district brought more or less gold-dust, 
the major part of which immediately passed into the 
hands of the merchants, for goods. Immense quan- 
tities of merchandise were conveyed to the mines, 
until it became a matter of astonishment where so 
much could be disposed of. Luring the first eight 
weeks of the golden times, the receipts at this place 
(San Francisco) in gold-dust amounted to two 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. For the eight 
weeks ending at this date (Sept. 23, 1848), they 
were six hundred thousand dollars. The number of 
persons now engaged in gold-hunting will probably 
exceed six thousand, including Indians, and one 
ounce per day is the lowest average we can put for 
each person, while many collect their hundreds of 
dollars for a number of days in succession, and 
instances have been known where one individual has 
collected from fifteen hundred to eighteen hundred 
dollars worth of pure gold in one day. Explorations 
have been progressing, and it is now fully ascertained 
that gold exists on both sides of the Sierra Nevada, 
from latitude forty-one degrees north, as far south 
as the head-waters of the San Joaquin river, a dis- 
tance of four hundred miles in length and one 
hundred in breadth. Farther than this has not been 
explored; but from the nature of the country beyond 
the sources of the San Joaquin, we doubt not gold 
will also be found there in equal abundance. The gold 
region already known is sufficiently extensive to 
give profitable employment to one hundred thousand 
persons for generations to come. The ore is in a 
virgin state, disseminated in small doses, and is 
found in three distinct deposits — in sand and gravel 
beds, in decomposed granite, and intermingled with 
a kind of slate." 

In April, 1848, Mr. Jonas Speet, an enterprising 
pioneer, gave the following interesting account of 
gold discoveries: — 

" Up to this time there had been little excite- 
ment about the gold diggings; but at Knight's 
Landing we were overtaken by Spaniards, who were 
on their way to Sutter's mill to dig gold, and they 
reported stories of fabulously rich diggings. After 
discussing the matter, we changed our course to the 
gold mines and hurried on, arriving at the mill on 
the thirtieth day of April. It was true that several 
rich strikes had been made, but the miners then at 
work did not average two and a half dollars per 
day. Marshall and Sutter claimed the land and 
rented the mines. Every one supposed gold was 
confined to that particular locality. We did not 
engage in mining, and concluded to resume our 
journey across the plains. On our return trip we 
learned that gold had been found on Mormon Island. 
But we took no further notice of gold, and on the 
12th of May arrived at Johnson's ranch. We 
found one man there waiting our arrival, but we 
expected many others in a short time. We waited 



56 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CAI.IKolJ.NIA. 



until about the 25th, when we learned that 
there was another rush to the mines, and then 
vanished all prospect of any company crossing the 
mountains that Summer. My partner left for the 
American river, and I proposed to Johnson that we 
should prospect for gold on Rear river. We went 
some distance up the stream and spent three days in 
the search without any satisfactory result. I then 
suggested to Johnson that he should send his Indian 
with me, and I would prospect the Yuba river, as 
that stream was about the size of the South Pork of 
the American river. We prepared the outfit, and 
on the 1st of June, we struck the Yuba near Long 
Bar. After a good deal of prospecting, I succeeded 
in raising ' color.' That night I camped in Timbuc- 
too ravine, a little above where we first found the 
gold. The next day, June 2d, I continued pros- 
pecting up the stream, finding a little gold, but 
not enough to pay. The Indian was well acquainted, 
and he piloted me up to the location of Rose's Bar. 
where we met a large number of Indians, all entirely 
nude and eating clover. I prospected on the bar, 
and found some gold, but not sufficient to be remu- 
nerative. Greatly discouraged, I started on my 
return home. When I arrived at a point on the 
Yuba river, a little above Timbuctoo ravine, I washed 
some of the dirt and found three lumps of gold 
worth about seven dollars. I pitched my tent here 
on the night of June 2d, and sent the Indian home 
for supplies. In about a week I moved down on the 
creek, and remained there until November 20th, 
when I left the mines forever. June 3d, the next day 
after the location of my camp, Michael C. Nye and 
William Foster came up the creek prospecting for 
gold." 

The discovery of gold on the American river led 
Mr. Nye and party to start out on a prospecting 
trip. In the Summer — the exact date is not known — 
they found paying diggings on Dry creek, near its 
junction with the Yuba, and commenced working on 
an extensive scale. The discoveries by Mr. Spect 
and Mr. Nye's company were nearly contempora- 
neous, and as the parties started from different local- 
ities, and without any knowledge of the acts of the 
other, due credit should be given to each. 

GENERAL SUTTER'S ACCOUNT OF THE GOLD DISCOVERY. 

The following extracts are from an article com- 
municated, in his own handwriting, by General 
Sutter to Hatchings'' California Magazine for Novem- 
ber, 1857. As a part of the history of the great 
event referred to, and as the personal narrative of 
one of the chief actors in the golden drama, it is one 
of the most interesting records of the time. General 
Sutter says: — 

" It was in the first of January, 1848, when the 
gold was discovered at Coloma, where I was build- 
ing a saw-mill. The contractor and builder of this 
mill was James W. Marshall, from New Jersey. In 
the Fall of 1847, after the mill-site had been located. 
1 sent up to this place Mr. P. L. Wimmer, with his 
family, and a number of laborers from the disbanded 
Mormon Battalion; and a little later I engaged Mr. 
Bennett, from Oregon, to assist Mr. Marshall in the 
mechanical labors of the mill. Mr. "Wimmer had 
the team in charge, assisted by his young sons to do 
the teaming, and Mrs. "Wimmer did the cooking for 
all hands. 



• I was very much 
lumber to finish my 



in need of a saw-mill to get 
flouring-mill, of four run of 



stones, at Brighton, which was commenced at the 
same time, and was rapidly progressing; likewise, 
for other buildings, fences, etc., for the small village 
of Yerba Buena, now San Francisco. In the City 
Hotel (the only one) this enterprise was unkindly 
• ailed 'another folly of Sutter's;' as my first settle- 
ment at the old fort, near Sacramento City, was 
called by a good many 'a folly of his,' and they 
were about right in that, because 1 had the best 
chances to get some of the finest locations near the 
settlements: and even well-stocked ranches had 
been offered me on the most reasonable conditions. 
But I refused all these good offers, and preferred to 
explore the wilderness, and select a territory on the 
banks of the Sacramento. 

"It was a rainy afternoon when Mr. Marshall 
arrived at rny office, in the fort, very wet. I was 
somewhat surprised to see him. as he was down a 
few days previous, when I sent up to Coloma a num- 
ber of teams with provisions, mill irons, etc. He 
told me then that he had some important and inter- 
esting news which he wished to communicate secretly 
to me, and wished me to go with him to a place 
where we should not be disturbed, and where no 
listeners could come and hear what we had to say. 
I went with him to my private rooms; he requested 
me to lock the door; I complied, but told him at the 
same time that nobody was in the house except the 
clerk, who was in his office in a different part of the 
house. 

"After requesting of me something which he 
wanted, Avhich my servants brought and then left 
the room, 1 forgot to lock the door, and it happened 
that the door was opened by the clerk just at the 
moment when Marshall took a rag from his pocket, 
showing me the yellow metal. He had about two 
ounces of it; but how quick Mr. Marshall put the 
yellow metal in his pocket again, can hardly be 
described. The clerk came to see me on business, 
and excused himself for interrupting me; and as 
soon as he had left, I was told, ' Now, lock the door. 
Didn't I tell you that we might have listeners?' I 
told him he need fear nothing about that, as it was 
not the habit of this gentleman; but I could hardly 
convince him that he need not be suspicious. 

" Then Mr. Marshall began to show me this metal, 
which consisted of small pieces and specimens, some 
of them worth a few dollars. He told me that he 
had expressed his opinion to the laborers at the mill 
that this might be gold; but some of them laughed 
at him and called him a crazy man, and could not 
believe such a thing. 

"After having proved the metal with aqua fortis, 
which I found in my apothecaiy shop, likewise with 
other experiments, and read the long article 'Gold,' 
in the Encyclopedia Americana, I declared this to be 
gold of the finest quality, of at least twenty-three 
carats. After this Mr. Marshall had no more rest or 
patience, and wanted me to start with him imme- 
diately for Coloma; but 1 told him I could not 
leave, as it was late in the evening, and nearly 
supper-time, and that it would be better for him to 
remain with me till the next morning, and I would 
then travel with him. But this would not do; he 
asked me only, 'Will you come to-morrow?' I 
told him yes, and off he started for Coloma, in the 
heaviest rain, although already very wet, taking 
nothing to eat. I took this news very easy, like 
all other occurrences, good or bad, but thought a 
great deal during the night about the consequences 



THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 



57 



which might follow such a discovery. 1 gave all 
the necessary orders to my numerous laborers, and 
left the next morning at seven o'clock, accompanied 
by an Indian soldier and a vaqucro, in a heavy rain, 
for Coloma. About half-way on the road, I saw at 
a distance a human being crawling out from the 
brushwood. 1 asked the Indian who it was. He 
told me, 'the same man who was Avith you last 
evening.' When I came nearer I found it was Mar- 
shall, very wet. I told him he would have done 
better to remain with me at the fort, than to pass 
such an ugly night here; but he told me that he went 
to Coloma, fifty-four miles, took his other horse and 
came half-way to meet me. Then we rode up to the 
new El Dorado. 

"In the afternoon, the weather was clearing up, 
and we made a prospecting promenade. The next 
morning, we went to the tail-race of the mill, 
through which the water was running during the 
night, to clear out the gravel which had been made 
loose for the purpose of widening the race; and 
after the water was out of the race, we went in to 
search for gold. This was done every morning. Small 
pieces of gold could be seen remaining on the surface 
of the clean-washed bed-rock. I went into the race and 
picked up several pieces of this gold; several of the 
laborers gave me some which they had picked up, 
and from Marshall I received a part. I told them I 
would get a ring made of this gold as soon as it 
cbuld be done in California; and I have had a heavy 
ring made, with my family's coat-of-arms engraved 
on the outside, and on the inside of the ring is 
engraved: 'the first gold discovered in January, 
1848.' Now if Mrs. Wimmer possesses a piece which 
had been found earlier than mine, Mr. Marshall can 
tell, as it was probably received from him. I think 
Mr. Marshall could have hardly known himself which 
was exactly the first little piece, among the whole. 

'•The next day 1 went with Mr. Marshall on a 
prospecting tour in the vicinity of Coloma, and the 
following morning 1 left lor Sacramento. Before my 
departure, I had a conversation with all hands; I 
told them I would consider it a great favor if they 
would keep this discovery secret only for six weeks, 
so that I could finish my large flour-mill at Brighton, 
which had cost me already about twenty-four or 
twenty-five thousand dollars. The people up there 
promised to keep it secret so long. On my way 
home, instead of feeling happy and contented, I 
was very unhappy, and could not see that it 
would benefit me much; and I was perfectly right 
in thinking so, as it came just precisely as I 
expected. I thought, at the same time that it 
could hardly be kept secret for six weeks ; and 
in that I was not mistaken, for, about two weeks 
later, after my return, I sent up several teams, in 
charge of a white man, as the teamsters were Indian 
boys. This man was acquainted with all hands up 
there, and Mrs. Wimmer told him the whole secret ; 
likewise the young sons of Mrs. Wimmer told him 
that they had gold, and that they would let him have 
some, too; and so he obtained a few dollars' worth of 
it, as a present. As soon as this man arrived at the 
fort, he went to a small store in one of my outside 
buildings, kept by Mr. Smith, a partner of Samuel 
Brannan, and asked for a bottle of brandy, for which 
he would pay the cash. After having the bottle he 
paid with these small pieces of gold. Smith was 
astonished, and asked if he meant to insult him. The 
teamster told him to go and ask me about it. Smith 
came in, in great haste to see me, and I told him at 
once the truth — what could I do? I had to tell him 
8 



all about it. He reported it to Mr. S. Brannan, who 
came up immediately to get all possible information, 
when he returned and sent up large supplies of goods, 
leased a larger house from me, and commenced a 
very large and profitable business. Soon he opened 
a branch house at Mormon Island. 

" So soon as the secret was out, my laborers began 
to leave me, in small parties at first, but then all left, 
from the clerk to the cook, and I was in great dis- 
tress. Only a few mechanics remained to finish some 
necessary work which they had commenced, and 
about eight invalids, who continued slowly to work 
a few teams, to scrape out the mill-race at Brighton. 
The Mormons did not like to leave my mill unfin- 
ished; but they got the gold-fever, like everybody 
else. After they had made their piles they left for 
the Great Salt Lake. So long as these people have 
been employed by me, they have behaved very well 
and were industrious and faithful laborers; and when 
settling their accounts, there was not one of them 
who was not contented and satisfied. 

"Then the people commenced rushing up from San 
Francisco and other parts of California, in May, 1848. 
In the former village (San Francisco,) only five men 
were left to take care of the women and children. 
The single men locked their doors and left for ' Sut- 
ter's Fort,' and from thence to the El Dorado. For 
some time the people in Monterey and further south, 
would not believe the news of the gold discovery, 
and said it was only a 'ruse de guerre of Sutter's, be- 
cause he wanted to have neighbors in his wilderness.' 
From this time on I got only too many neighbors, 
and some very bad ones among them. 

" What a great misfortune was this sudden gold 
discovery to me ! It has just broken up and ruined 
my hard, industrious, and restless labors, connected 
with many dangers of life, as I had many narrow 
escapes before I became properly established. From 
my mill buildings I reaped no benefit whatever; the 
mill-stones, even, have been stolen from me. My 
tannery, Avhich was then in a flourishing condition, 
and was carried on very profitably, was deserted; a 
largo quantity of leather was left unfinished in the 
vats, and a great quantity of rawhides became val- 
ueless, as they could not be sold. Nobody wanted to 
be bothered with such trash, as it was called. So it 
was in all the other mechanical trades which I had 
carried on ; all was abandoned, and work com- 
menced, or nearly finished, was left, at an immense 
loss to me. Even the Indians had no more patience 
to work alone, in harvesting and threshing my large 
wheat crop; as the whites had all left, and other 
Indians had been engaged by some white men to work 
for them, and they commenced to have some gold, for 
which they were buying all kinds of articles at 
enormous prices in the stores, which, when my Indians 
saw this, they wished very much to go to the mount- 
ains and dig gold. At last I consented, got a num- 
ber of wagons ready, loaded them with provisions 
and goods of all kinds, employed a clerk, and left 
with about one hundred Indians and about fifty 
Sandwich Islanders, which had joined those which I 
brought with me from the Islands. The first camp 
was about ten miles from Mormon Island, on the 
South fork of the American river. In a few weeks 
we became crowded, and it would no more pay, as 
ni} T people made too many acquaintances. I broke 
up the camp and started on the march further south, 
and located my next camp on Sutter creek, now in 
Amador county, and thought that I should there be 
alone. The work was going on well for awhile, un- 
til three or four traveling grog-shops surrounded me, 



:>8 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



at from one-half to ten miles distance from the camp. 
Then, of course, the gold was taken to these places, 
for drinking, gambling, etc., and then the following 
day they were sick and unable to work, and be 
camo deeper and more indebted to me, particularly 
the Kanakas. I found it was high time to quit this 
kind of business, and lose no more time and money. I 
therefore broke up the camp and returned to tin- fori. 
where 1 disbanded nearly all the people who had 
worked for mo in the mountains digging gold. This 
whole expedition proved to be a heavy loss to me. 

"At the same time, I was engaged in a mercantile 
firm at Coloma, which 1 left in January, 1849, like- 
wise with many sacrifices. After this, I would have 
nothing more to do with the gold affairs. At this 
time the fort was the great trading-place, where 
nearly all the business was transacted. I had no 
pleasure to remain there, and moved up to Hock 
farm, with all my Indians, who had been with me 
from the time they were children. The place was 
then in charge of a major-domo. 

"It was very singular that the Indians never found 
a piece of gold and brought it to me, as they very 
often did other specimens found in the mountains. 
I requested them continually to bring me some curi- 
osities from the mountains, for which I always recom- 
pensed them. I have received animals, birds, plants, 
young trees, wild fruits, pipe-clay, red ochre, etc., 
but never a piece of gold. Mr. Dana, of the Wilkes' 
Exploring Expedition, told me that he had the strong- 
est proof and signs of gold in the vicinity of Shasta 
mountain, and further south. A short time after- 
wards Dr. Sandels, a very scientific traveler, visited 
me, exploi'ed a part of the countiy in a great hurry, 
as time would not permit him to make a longer stay. 
He told me likewise that he found some signs of gold, 
and was very sorry that he could not explore the 
Sierra Nevada. He did not encourage me to attempt 
to work and open mines, as it was uncertain how it 
would pay, and would probably be only profitable for 
a Government. So I thought it more prudent to stick 
to the plow, notwithstanding I did know the country 
was rich in gold and other minerals. An old, at- 
tached Mexican servant, who had followed me from 
the United States as soon as he knew that I was 
here, and who understood a great deal about work- 
ing in placers, told me he found sure sifrns of gold in 
the mountains on Bear creek, and that we would go 
right to work after returning from our campaign in 
1845; but he became a victim to his patriotism, and 
fell into the hands of the enemy near my encamp- 
ment, with dispatches for me from General Michelto- 
rena, and he was bung as a spy, for which I was 
very sorry. J. A. Sutter." 



CHAPTER XY. 
EARLY CONDITION OF THIS REGION. 

Mountains Unexplored by the Spaniards — The Trappers — Fre- 
mont's Passage of the Mountains in 1 844 — Battles with the 
Snow — The Indian's Warning — A Glimpse of the Valley — 
Subsisting on Horse Fiesta — Arrival at Slitter's Fort — Early 
Settlements — An Immigrant Party of 1844 — Captain Truckee 
— Truckee Eiver — Alone on the Summit — Death of Captain 
Truckee — Immigrants in 1S46 — Discovery of Gold on the 
Yuba. 

The native Californians never penetrated into the 
heart of the mountains that skirt the Sacramento 
valley on the east; gazing from a distance upon their 
snow-clad crests, they had named them Sierra 
Nevada, the " snowy mountains," but beyond this 



they remained terra incoynita to them. The bold 
and adventurous trappers of the American Fur Com- 
pany, and the Hudson Bay Company, passed over 
them several times on their way to and from the 
choice trapping grounds in (he valley. The cele- 
brated trapper, Stephen 11. Meek, claims to have 
been the first white man who gazed upon the 
Truckee river, on which stream he set his traps in 
1833. The river did not rceivc its name, however, 
until eleven years later, as will appear further on. 
The Yuba and Bear rivers, having been explored by 
the Spaniards in 1S22, in the valley, had been named 
at that time, the one Rio de las Uva (Grape river) 
and the other Eio de los Osos (Bear river), but as to 
their source and direction in the mountains nothing 
whatever was known. To them were unknown 
lakes Donncr, Tahoe, and the scores of lesser lakes 
that are the pride of the mountains. A few misera- 
able Digger Indians lived in huts, and subsisted on 
acorns, grass, rabbits, etc., and were sovereign lords 
of the beautiful Sierras. 

The valleys of California were, during the early 
part of this century, occupied and traversed by 
bands of trappers in the employ of the many Ameri- 
can and foreign fur companies. The stories of their 
wanderings and experiences are mostly related in the 
form of sensational novels, whose authenticity and 
accuracy must be taken with a great degree of allow- 
ance. Few records concerning these fur-hunters 
remain which are within the reach of the historian, 
and the information given has been gleaned in part 
from personal interviews with those whose knowl- 
edge of the subject was gained by actual experience, 
or by a personal acquaintance with those who 
belonged to the parties. In many cases their stories 
•differ widely in regard to facts and names. 

As early as 1820, the Tulare, San Joaquin, and Sac- 
ramento valleys were occupied by trappers, who 
had Avandered there while searching for the Colum- 
bia river. Captain Sutter, in 1834, while in New 
Mexico, heard from these California trappers of the 
Sacramento valley, which afterwards became so 
reputed as his home. The disputes arising in regard 
to the occupation of the northern part of the Pacific 
coast trapping region, in Oregon, led the American 
hunters to occupy the territory in and about the 
Eocky Mountains. In 1815, Congress, at the earnest 
request of the people of the West, passed an Act 
driving out British traders from the American terri- 
tory east of the Rocky Mountains. Immediately 
the employes of the old North American Fur Com- 
pany, still under charge of John Jacob Astor, began 
to trap and hunt in the region of the head-waters of 
the Mississippi and Upper Missouri. In 1823, Mr. 
W. H. Ashley, of St. Louis, an old merchant in the 
fur trade, at the head of a party, explored the 
Sweetwater, the Platte, the South Pass, and the 
head-waters of the Colorado, returning in the Sum- 
mer. In 1824 he extended his explorations to Great 
Salt Lake, near which, on a smaller lake named 



EARLY CONDITION OF THIS REGION. 



59 



Lake Ashley, he built a fort and trading post, which 
was occupied for three years by his men. In 1826 
(_or 1827) Mr. Ashley disposed of his business, 
including the fort, to the Rocky Mountain Fur Com- 
pany, under the leadership of Jedediah Smith, 
David Jackson and William Sublette. 

Luring the Spring of 1825, Smith, with a party of 
forty trappers and Indians, started from the head- 
quarters on Green river, traveling westward, crossed 
the Sierra .Nevada mountains, and in July entered 
the Tulare valley. The country from the Tulare to 
the American fork of the Sacramento river was 
traversed in trapping for beaver. They found at the 
fork another party of American trappers encamped, 
and located their own rendezvous near the present 
town of Folsom. in October, Smith, leaving the 
remainder of the party at the camp, returned to the 
company's head-quarters on Green river. In May, 
182(5, Smith again set out for the new trapping- 
region, taking a route further south than on the first 
trip, but when in the Mohave settlements, on the 
Colorado, all the party except Smith, Galbraith, and 
Turner, were killed by Indians. These three escaped 
to San Gabriel Mission, and Lecember26, 1826, were 
arrested as spies or filibusters. They were taken to 
the presidio at San Liego, where they were detained 
until the following certificate from Americans then 
in San Francisco was presented: — 

"We, the undersigned, having been requested by 
Capt. J edediah S. Smith to state our opinion regarding 
his entering the Province of California, do not hesi- 
tate to say that we have no doubt but that he was com- 
pelled to, for want of provisions and water, having 
entered so far into tne barren country that lies 
between the latitudes of forty-two and forty-three 
west, that he found it impossible to return by the 
route he came, as his horses had most of them per- 
ished tOr want of food and water ; he was thereiore 
under the necessity of pushing forward to California, 
it being the nearest place where he could procure 
supplies to enable him to return. 

" We further state as our opinion, that the 
account given by him is circumstantially correct, 
and that nis sole object was the hunting and trap- 
ping of beaver and other furs. 

" VV.e have also examined the passports produced 
by him from the Superintendent of Indian affairs 
for the Government of the United States of Amer- 
ica, and do not hesitate to say we believe them per- 
fectly correct. 

" We also state that, in our opinion, his motives 
for wishing to pass by a different route to the Co- 
lumbia river, on his return, is solely because he feels 
convinced that he and his companions run great risk 
of perishing if they return by the route they came. 

" In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our 
hand and seal, this 2Uth day of Lecember, 1826. 

William G. Lana, Captain of schooner Waverly. 
. William H. Cunningham, Captain of ship Courier. 

William Henderson, Captain of brig OUoe Branch. 

James Scott. 

Thom"as M. Robbins, Mate of schooner Waverbj. 

Thomas Shaw, Supercargo of ship Courier." 

Smith was liberated, and during the Summer of 1827, 
with his party, left the Sacramento valley, journeying 



toward the Columbia river. While encamped at the 
mouth of the Umpqua river, near Cape Arago, the 
Indians attacked them, and, with the exception of 
Smith, Richard Laughlin, and Daniel Prior, killed 
the entire party. These three escaped to Fort Van- 
couver, where they received a cordial reception and 
kind treatment. Some writers state that Smith then 
went directly to St. Louis, while others claim that, 
with a party of the Hudson Ray Company's men, he 
returned to the scene of his last battle, and meeting 
no opposition, journeyed on and down the Sacra- 
mento valley until he reached the junction of the 
Sacramento and Feather rivers, near which a camp 
was located. This party, under command of a 
Scotchman named McLeod, was the first of the 
Hudson Bay Company to occupy California. If the 
latter version is correct, then Smith soon after left 
the party and returned to the trapping grounds of 
his own company. 

In the Spring of 1832, Capt. B. L. E. Bonne- 
ville, an officer in the United States Army, on fur- 
lough, at the head of a company of one hundred 
men, with wagons, horses, mules, and merchandise, 
crossed the Rocky Mountains, leading parties of men 
into the Colorado, Humboldt and Sacramento valleys. 

Ewing Young, who had trapped with parties on 
the upper part of the Del Norte, the eastern part of 
the Grand and the Colorado rivers, pursuing the 
route formerly traversed by Smith, in the Winter of 
1829-3U, entered the San Joaquin valley, and 
hunted on Tulare lake and the adjacent streams. 
During the last part of 1832, or early in 1833, Young, 
having again entered the San Joaquin valley and 
trapped on the streams, finally arrived at the Sacra- 
mento river, about ten miles below the mouth of the 
American. He followed up the Sacramento to the 
Feather river, and from there crossed over to the 
coast. The coast-line was traveled till they 
reached the mouth of the Umpqua, where they 
crossed the mountains to the inland. Entering the 
upper portion of the Sacramento valley, they pro- 
ceeded southerly till th§y reached the American 
river. Then they followed down the San Joaquin 
valley, and passed out through the Tejon pass, in 
the Winter of 1833-1. Besides these parties and 
leaders mentioned, during this period there were 
several trappers or "lone traders," who explored 
and hunted through the valleys. 

The attention of the officers of the wealthy and 
powerful Hudson Bay Company was first specially 
called to the extent and importance of the fur trade 
in California by Jedediah Smith, in 1827 or 1828. 
The first expedition sent out by them was that 
under the command of McLeod. A short time alter 
the departure of this company, a second one was 
sent out under the leadership of Mr. Ogden, which 
followed up the Columbia and Lewis rivers, thence 
southerly over Western Utah, Nevada, and into the 
San Joaquin valley. On their return they trapped 
I on the streams in Sacramento valley, and went out 



60 



HISTORY OF AMADol! COUNTY CALIFORNIA. 



at the northern limit in L830. About, the middle of 

1832 another band of trappers, under Michael Lafram- 
boise, came into the Sacramento valley from the 
north, and until the next Spring spent the time in trap- 
ping on the streams flowing througb the great val- 
ley. The Hudson Bay Company continued sending 
out its employes into this region until about the year 
1845. Their trappers in California belonged to the 
"Southern Trapping Party of the Hudson Bay Com- 
pany," and were divided into smaller parties composed 
of Canadians and Indians, with their wives. The 
trapping was carried on during the Winter, in 
order to secure a good class of furs. The free trap- 
pers were paid ten shillings sterling for a prime 
beaver skin, while the Indians received a moderate 
compensation for their services. The outfits and 
portions of their food were purchased from the com- 
pany. The Hudson Bay Company employed about 
ninety or one hundred men in this State. The 
greater part of the Indians were fugitives from the 
Missions, and were honest and peaceably inclined, 
from the fact that it was mainly to their interest to 
be so. From 1832 the chief rendezvous was at 
French Camp, about five miles south of Stockton. 
About 1841 the company bought of Jacob P. Leese 
the building he had erected for a store in San Fran- 
cisco, and made that their business center for this 
territory. The agents were J. Alex. Forbes, and 
William G. Ray, both of whom were intelligent, dig- 
nified, and courteous gentlemen. Mr. Ray, who was 
very sensitive, and given slightly to dissipation, 
when some complaint of a trivial character was made 
in reference to his acts, committed suicide in 
1845. His death, and the scarcity of beaver and 
otter, caused the company to wind up their agency 
and business in the territory. Mr. Forbes was, for- 
a long series of years, the British Consul at San 
Francisco, and by his genial manners, superior cul- 
ture, and finished education, made a good record, 
which places him among the noted men of the State. 
This gentleman now resides in Oakland, and 
although seventy-five years of age, bis faculties are 
as strong as ever. His memory is wonderful, and 
this power of retention, with the vast fund of knowl- 
edge possessed, has been of great service to the his- 
torian. He has the honor of being the first English 
historian of California, his " California," published in 
London in 1839, being written in Mexico four y T cars 
previous to the date of its publication.* 

During the months of January and February, 1844, 
John C. Fremont, then Brevet Captain of Topo- 
graphical Engineers, on his return from his first 
exploring expedition to Oregon, passed down the 
east side of the Siei-ras, and crossed the snow-cov- 
ered summit of New Helvetia (Sacramento), suffer- 
ing many privations and hardships. His experiences 
are so clearly i*elated in his report to the Chief of 
Engineers, that the portion relating to this stage of 
his journey is hex*e given to show the character of 

*Mr. Forbes died recently of heart disease. 



the mountains, thenatureof the inhabitants, and the 
scarcity of knowledge of the Sierras, although the 
passage was made in El Dorado county. Passing by 
i lie accounl of his journey soul hward from the Dalles 
WO take up his narrative on the evening of Jan- 
uary 31, 1844, upon reaching the Upper Truckee 
river, south of Lake Tahoe. 

"In the course of the afternoon, one of the nun 
had his foot- frost-bitten; and about dark we had the 
satisfaction of reaching the bottom of a stream tim- 
bered with large trees, among which we found a 
sheltered cam]), with an abundance of such grass as 
the season afforded, for the animals. We saw before 
us, in descending from the pass, a great, continuous 
range, along which stretched the valley of the river; 
the lower parts steep, and dark with pines, while 
above it was hidden in clouds of snow. This we felt 
satisfied was the central ridge of the Sierra Nevada, 
the great California mountain, which now only inter- 
vened between us and the waters of the bay. We 
had made a forced march of twenty-six miles, and 
three mules had given out on the road. Up to this 
point, with the exception -of two stolen by Indians, 
we had lost none of the horses which had been 
brought from the Columbia river, and a number of 
these were still strong, and in tolerably good order. 
We bad now sixty-seven animals in the band. (The 
party consisted of twenty-five persons ) 

i< * * * A,y e gathered together a few of the more 
intelligent of the Indians, and held this evening an 
interesting council. I explained to them my inten- 
tions. I told them that we had come from a very 
far country, having been traveling now nearly a year, 
and that we were desirous simply to go across the 
mountain into the country of the other whites. 
There were two who appeared particularly intelli- 
gent — one, a somewhat old man. He told me that, 
before the snows fell, it was six sleeps to the place 
where the whites lived, but that now it was impossi- 
ble to cross the mountain on account of the deep 
snow; and showing us, as the others bad done, that 
it was over our heads, he urged us strongly to fol- 
low the course of the river, -which, he said, would 
conduct us to a lake (Tahoe), in which there were 
many large fish. There, he said, Avcrc many people; 
there was no snow on the ground, and we might 
remain there until the Spring. From their descrip- 
tions, we were enabled to judge that we were en- 
camped on the upper water of the Salmon Trout 
river. It is hardly necessary to say that our com- 
munication was only by signs, as we understood 
nothing of their language; but they spoke, notwith- 
standing, rapidly and vehemently, explaining what 
they considered the folly of our intentions, and urg- 
ing us to go down to the lake. Tah-ve, a word 
sio-nifying snow, Ave very soon learned to know, from 
its frequent repetition. I told him that the men and 
horses Avere strong, and that Ave Avould break a road 
through the snow; and spreading before him our bales 
of scarlet cloth and trinkets, showed him Avhat we 
would give for a guide. It was necessary to obtain 
one, if possible, for I had determined hereto attempt 
the passage of the mountain. Pulling a bunch of 
grass from the ground, after a short discussion 
among themselves, the old man made us comprehend 
that if we could break through the snovv, at the 
end of three days Ave Avould come down upon grass, 
Avhich bcshoAved usAvould be about six inches high, 
and where the ground Avould be entirely free. So far, 
ho said, he had been in bunting for elk; but beyond 



EARLY CONDITION OF THIS REGION. 



Gl 



that (and he closed his eyes) he had seen nothing; 
hat there was one amongthem who had been to the 
whites, and, going out of the lodge, he returned with 
a young man of very intelligent appearance. Here, 
said he, is a young man who has seen the whites Avith 
his own eyes; and he swore, first by the sky, and 
then by the ground, that what he said was true. 
With a large present of goods, we prevailed upon this 
young man to be our guide, and he acquired among 
us the name Melo — a word signifying friend, which 
they used very frequently. He was thinly clad and 
nearly bare-footed, his moccasins being about worn 
out. We gave him skins to make a new pair, to enable 
him to perform his undertaking to us. The Indians re- 
mained in the camp during the night, and we kept 
the guide and two others to sleep in the lodge with 
us — Carson (Kit Carson) lying across the door, 
having made them acquainted with the use of our 
fire-arms. The snow, which had intermitted in the 
evening, commenced falling again in the course of 
the night, and it snowed steadily all day. In 
the morning I acquainted the men with my decision, 
and explained to them that necessity required us to 
make a great effort to clear the mountains. I 
reminded them of the beautiful valley of the Sacra- 
mento, with which they were familiar from the 
descriptions of Carson, who had been there some fif- 
teen years ago, and who, in our late privations, had 
delighted us in speaking of its rich pastures and 
abounding game, and drew a viyid contrast between 
the Summer climate, less than a hundred miles dis- 
tant, and the falling snow around us. I informed 
them (and long experience had given them confi- 
dence in my observations and good instruments) 
that almost directly west, and only about seventy 
miles distant, Avas the great farming establishment 
of Captain Sutter — a gentleman who had formerly 
lived in Missouri, and, emigrating to this country, 
had become the possessor of a principality. I assured 
them that from the heights of the mountain before 
us, Ave should doubtless see the valley of the Sacra- 
mento river, and with one effort place ourselves . 
again in the midst of plenty. The people received 
this decision with the cheerful obedience which had 
always characterized them, and the day Avas imme- 
diately devoted to the preparations necessary to 
enable us to carry it into effect. Leggins, mocca- 
sins, clothing — all were put into the best state to 
resist the cold. Our guide was not neglected. Ex- 
tremity of suffering might make him desert; we 
therefore did the best we could for him. Leggins, 
moccasins, some articles of clothing, and a large 
green blanket, in addition to the blue and scarlet 
cloth, were lavished upon him, and to his great and 
evident contentment. He arrayed himself in all his 
colors, and, clad in green, blue and scarlet, he made 
a gay looking Indian; and, Avith his Acinous pres- 
ents, Avas probably richer and better clothed than 
any of his tribe had OA 7 er been before. 

" * * * The river Avas forty to seventy feet Avidc, 
and noAV entirely frozen over. It Avas Avoodcd with 
large cottonAVOod, avUIoav and grain de boe-itf. By 
observation, the latitude of this encampment was 
38° 37' 18". 

• " February 2d. It had ceased snowing, and this 
morning the loAver air Avas clear and frosty; and six 
or seven thousand feet above, the peaks of the Sierra 
now and then appeared among the rolling clouds 
Avhich Avere rapidly disappearing before the sun. 
Our Indian shook his head as he pointed to the icy 
pinnacles, shooting high up into the sky, and seem- 
ing almost immediately above us. Crossing the river 



on the ice, and leaving it immediately, we com- 
menced the ascent of the mountain along the valley 
of a tributary stream. The people Avere unusually 
silent, for every man knew that our enterprise was 
hazardous, and the issue doubtful. The snow deep- 
ened rapidly, and it soon became necessary to 
break a road. For this service a party of ten was 
formed, mounted on the strongest horses, each man 
in succession opening the road on foot, or on horse- 
back, until himself and his horse became fatigued, 
Avhen he stepped aside, and, the remaining number 
passing ahead, he took his station in the rear. Leav- 
ing this stream, and pursuing a very direct course, 
we passed over an intervening ridge to the river we 
had left. On the Avay Ave passed tAVO huts, en- 
tirely coA*ered with snoAv, which might very easily 
haA T e escaped observation. A family was living in 
each, and the only trail I saAv in the neighborhood 
Avas from the door-hole to a nut-pine near, which 
supplied them Avith food and fuel. We found tAvo 
similar huts on the creek Avhere Ave next arrived, 
and traveling a little higher up, encamped on its 
banks, in about four feet of suoav. To-day we had 
tra\ T eled sixteen miles, and our elevation aboA T e the 
sea was six thousand seven hundred and sixty feet. 

''February 3d. Turning our faces directly tOAvai'ds 
the main chain, we ascended an open hollow along a 
small tributary to the river, which, according to the 
Lndians, issues from a mountain to the south. The 
snoAv was so deep in the holloAV that we were obliged 
to travel along the steep hill-sides, and over spurs, 
where wind and sun had lessened the snow, and 
where the grass, which appeared to be in good qual- 
ity along the sides of the mountain, Avas exposed. 
We opened our road in the same Avay as yesterday, 
but only made seven miles, and encamped by some 
springs at the foot of a high and steep hill, by which 
the hollow ascended to another basin in the mount- 
ain. The little stream beloAV Avas entirely buried in 
snow. * * * "We occupied the remainder of the day 
in beating down a road to the foot of the hill, a mile 
or two distant: the snoAv being beaten doAvn Avhen 
moist, in the Avarm part of the day, and then hard 
frozen at night, made a foundation that would bear 
the weight of the animals the next morning. Lur- 
ing the day seA r eral Indians joined us on snoAV-shoes. 
These Avere made of a circular hoop, about a foot in 
diameter, the interior space being filled Avith an open 
nct-Avork of bark. 

"February 4th. I Avent ahead early with two or 
three men, each Avith a led horse, to break the road. 
We Avere obliged to abandon the hollow entirely, and 
work along the mountain side, which Avas very steep, 
and the snoAv covered Avith an icy crust. * * * To- 
wards a pass Avhich the guide indicated, Ave at- 
tempted in the afternoon to force a road; but after a 
laborious plunging through two or three hundred 
yards, our best horse gave out, entirely refusing to 
make any further effort; and, for a time, we Avere 
brought to a stand. The guide informed us that avc 
were entering the deep suoav, and here began the 
difficulties of the mountain; and to him, and almost 
to all, our enterprise seemed hopeless. I returned a 
short distance back, to the break in the holloAV, where 
I met Mr. Fitzpatrick. The camp had been all the day 
occupied in endeavoring to ascend the hill, but only 
the best horses had succeeded, not having sufficient 
strength to bring themselves up Avithout the packs; 
and all the line of road betAveen this and the springs 
Avas strewed with camp stores and equipage, and 
horses floundering in suoav. I therefore immediately 
encamped on the ground with my own mess, which 



62 



HISTORY OF AMADol! COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



was in advance, and directed Mr. Fitzpatrick to 011- 
camp at the Springs, and send all the animals, in 

charge of Taban, with a strong guard, back to the 
place where they had been pastured the night before. 

* # * Two Indians joined our party here; and one 
of them, an old man, immediately began to ha- 
rangue ns, saying that ourselves and animals would 
perish in the snow; and that if wc would go back, he 
would show us another and a belter way across the 
mountain. JJe spoke in a very loud voice, and there 
was ;i singular repetition of phrases and arrange- 
ment of words, which rendered his speech striking, 
and not unmusical. Wc had now begun to under- 
stand some words, and, with the aid of signs, easily 
comprehended the old man's simple ideas. 'Rock 
upon rock — rock upon rock — snow upon snow — 
snow upon snow,' said he; 'even if you get over the 
snow you will not be able to get down from the 
mountains. He made us the sign of precipices, and 
showed us bow the feet of the horses would slip, and 
throw them off from the narrow trails that led along 
their sides. Our Chinook, who comprehended even 
more readily than ourselves, and believed our situa- 
tion hopeless, covered his head with his blanket and 
began to weep and lament. ' I wanted to see the 
whites,' said he; ' I come away from my own people 
to see the whites, and 1 wouldn't care to die among 
them, but here,' and he looked around into the cold 
night and the gloomy forest, and, drawing his blanket 
over bis head, began again to lament. Seated around 
the tree, the fire illuminating the rocks and the tall 
bolls of the pines around about, and the old Indian 
haranguing, we presented a group of very serious 
faces. 

" February 5th. The night had been too cold to 
sleep, and we were up very early. Our guide was 
standing by the fire with all his finery on; and see- 
ing him shiver in the cold, J threw on his shoulders 
one of my blankets. We missed him a few minutes 
afterwards, and never saw him again. He had de- 
serted. His bad faith and treachery were in per- 
fect keeping with the estimate of Indian character, 
which a long intercourse with this people had grad- 
ually forced upon my mind. While a portion of the 
camp were occupied in bringing up the baggage to 
this point, the remainder were busy in making sledges 
and snow-shoes, 1 had determined to explore the 
mountain ahead, and the sledges were to be used in 
transporting the baggage. * * * 

"February 6th. Accompanied by Mr. Fitzpatrick, I 
set out to-day with a reconnoitering party, on snow- 
shoes. We marched all in single file, trampling the 
snow as heavily as we could. Crossing the open 
basin, in a march of about ten miles we reached the 
top of one of the peaks, to the left of the pass indi- 
cated by our guide. Far below us, dimmed by the 
distance was a large snowless valley, bounded on the 
western side, at the distance of about a hundred 
miles, by a low range of mountains, which Carson 
recognized with delight as the mountains bordering 
the coast. ' There,' said he, ' is the little mountain 
(Mt. Diablo) — it is fifteen years ago since I saw it; 
but I am just as sure as if I had seen it yesterday.' 
Between us, then, and this low coast range, was the 
valley of the Sacramento; and no one who had not 
accompanied us through the incidents of our life for 
the last few months could realize the delight with 
which we at last looked down ujjon it. At the dis- 
tance of apparently thirty miles beyond us were dis- 
tinguished spots of prairie; and a dark line, which 
could be traced with the glass, was imagined to be 
the course of the river; but we were evidently at a 



* With one party drawing 
baggage, 1 advanced to-day 



great height above the valley, and between us and 
the plains extended miles of snowy liclds and broken 
ridges of pine-covered mountains. * * * All our en- 
ergies were now directed to getting our animals 
across the snow; and it was supposed that, after all 
the baggage had been drawn with tlie sleighs over 
the trail we had made, it would be sufficiently hard 
to bear our animals, 
sleighs loaded with 

about four miles along the trail, and encamped at the 
first grassy spot, where we intended to bring our 
horses. Mr. Fitzpatrick, with another parly, re- 
mained behind, to form an intermediate station be- 
tween us and the animals. * * * 

"February 8th. * * * Scenery and weather, com- 
bined, must render these mountains beautiful in Sum- 
mer; the purity and deep-blue color of the sky 
are singularly beautiful; the days are sunny and 
bright, and even warm in the noon hours; and if we 
could be free from the many anxieties that oppress 
us, even now we would be delighted here; but our 
provisions are getting fearfully scant. Sleighs ar- 
rived with baggage about ten o'clock; and leaving a 
portion of it here, we continued on for a mile and a 
half, and encamped at the foot of a long hill on this 
side of the open bottom. * * * 

" February 9th. During the night the weather 
changed, the wind rising to a gale, and commencing 
to snow before daylight; before morning the trail was 
covered. We remained quiet in camp all day, in the 
course of which the weather improved. Four sleighs 
arrived toward evening, with the bedding of the 
men. We suffer much from want of salt, and all 
the men are becoming weak from insufficient food. 

" February 10th. Taplin was sent back with a few 
men to assist Mr. Fitzpatrick; and continuing on 
with three sleighs carrying a part of the baggage, 
we had the satisfaction to encamp within two and a 
half miles of the head of the hollow, and at the foot 
of the last mountain ridge. Here two large trees 
had been set on fire, and in the holes, where the 
snow had been melted away, we found a comfortable 
camp. Putting on our snow-shoes, we spent the 
afternoon in exploring a road ahead. The glare of 
the snow combined with great fatigue, had rendered 
many of the people nearly blind; but we were fortu- 
nate in having some black silk handkerchiefs, which, 
worn as veils, very much relieved the eyes. 

" February 11th. High wind continued, and our 
trail this morning was nearly invisible — here and 
there indicated by a little ridge of snow. Our situa- 
tion became tiresome and dreary, requiring a strong 
exercise of patience and resolution. In the evening 
I received a message from Mr. Fitzpatrick, acquaint- 
ing me with the utter failure of his attempt to get 
our mules and horses over the snow — the half-hidden 
trail had proved entirely too slight to support them, 
and they had broken through, and were plunging 
about or lying half buried in the snow. * * * I 
wrote him to send the animals immediately back to 
their old pastures; and after having made mauls and 
shovels, turn in all the strength of his party to 
open and beat a road through the snow, strengthen- 
ing it with branches and boughs of the pines. 

" February 13th. We continued to labor on the 
road; and in the course of the day had the satisfac- 
tion to see the people working down the face of the 
opposite hill, about three miles distant. * * * The 
meat train did not arrive this morning, and I gave 
Godey leave to kill our little dog (Tlamath), wnich 
he prepared in Indian fashion; scorching oft' the hair, 
and washing the skin with soap and snow, and then 



EARLY CONDITION OF THIS REGION. 



63 



cutting it up in pieces, which Avere laid on the snow. 
Shortly afterward, the sleigh arrived with a supply 
of horse meat; and we had to-night an extraordinary 
dinner — pea soup, mule and dog. * * * 

" February lGth. We had succeeded in getting our 
animals safely to the first grassy hill; and this 
morning I started with Jacob on a reeonnoitering 
expedition beyond the mountain. 

" We traveled along the crest of narrow ridges, 
extending down from the mountain in the direction of 
the valley, from which the snow was fast melting 
away. On the open spots was tolerabby good grass; 
and I judged that we should succeed in getting the 
camp down by way of these. Toward sun-down 
we discovered some icy points in a deep hollow, and, 
descending the mountain, Ave encamped at the head- 
water of a little creek, where at last the water found 
its way to the Pacific. * * * We started again early 
in the morning. The creek acquired a regular 
breadth of about twenty feet, and we soon began to 
hear the rushing of the water below the ice-surface, 
over which we traveled to avoid the snow; a few 
miles below we broke through, where the water was 
several feet deep, and halted to dry our clothes. We 
continued a few miles further, walking being very 
laborious without snow-shoes. I was now perfectly 
satisfied that we "had struck the stream on which 
Mr. Sutter lived; and, turning about, made a hard 
push, and reached the camp at dark. * * * 

" On the 19th, the jDeople were occupied in mak- 
ing a road and bringing up the baggage; and, on the 
afternoon of the next day, February 20, 1844, we 
encamped with the animals and all the material of the 
camp, on the summit of the pass in the dividing- 
ridge, one thousand miles by our traveled road from 
the Dalles of the Columbia. The peojue, who had not 
yet been to this point, climbed the neighboring j^eak 
to enjoy a look at the valley. The temperature' of 
boiling water gave for the elevation of the encamp- 
ment nine thousand three hundred and thirty-eight 
feet above the sea.- This was two thousand feet 
higher than the South Pass in the Rocky Mountains, 
and several peaks in view rose several thousand feet 
still higher. * * *" 

From the summit the party passed down the 
western slope of the Sierras, following the general 
course of the stream, and suffering many hardships 
and privations, encountering much deep snow and 
sustaining life on none too juicy mule meat. The 
stream whose course was being followed was the 
south fork of the American river. Describing the 
happy termination of this perilous journey by an 
advance party of eight, Mr. Fremont says: — 

"March 6th. We continued on our road through 
the same surpassingly beautiful country, entirely 
unequaled for the pasturage of stock by anything we 
had ever seen. Our horses had now become so 
strong that they were able to carry us, and we trav- 
eled rapidly — over four miles an hour ; four of us 
riding every alternate hour. Every few hundred 
yards we came upon little bands of deer ; but we 
were too -eager to reach the settlement, which we 
momentarily expected to discover, to halt for any 
other than a passing shot. In a few hours we reached 
a large fork (North Fork of the American river), 
the northern branch of the river, and equal in size to 
that which we had descended. Together they formed 
a beautiful stream, sixty to one hundred yards wide, 
which at first, ignorant of the nature of the country 



through which that river. ran, we took to be the 
Sacramento. We continued down the right bank of 
the river, traveling for a while over a wooded upland 
where we had the delight to discover tracks of cattle. 
* * * We made an acorn meal at noon and 
hurried on. Shortly afterwards we gave a shout 
at the appearance on a little bluff of a neatly built 
adobe house with glass windows. We rode up, but, 
to our disappointment, found onl}- Indians. There 
was no appearance of cultivation, and we could see 
no cattle, and we supposed the place had been aban- 
doned. We now pressed on more eagerly than ever; 
the river swept round in a large bend to the right ; 
the hills lowered down entirely; and, gradually enter- 
ing a broad valley, we came unexpectedly into a large 
Indian village, where the people looked clean, and 
wore cotton shirts and various other articles of dress. 
They immediately crowded around us, and we had 
the inexpressible delight to find one who spoke a lit- 
tle indifferent Spanish, but who at first confounded 
us by saying there were no whites in the country ; 
but just then a well-dressed Indian came up and 
made his salutations in very well-spoken Spanish. 
In answer to our inquiries, he informed us that we 
were upon the Rio ale los Americanos (the river of the 
Americans), and that it joined the Sacramento river 
about ten miles below. Never did a name sound 
more sweetly! We felt ourselves among our country- 
men; for the name of American, in these distant parts, 
is applied to the citizens of the United States. To 
our eager inquiries he answered, ' I am a vaquero 
(cow herd) in the service of Captain Sutter, and the 
people of this rancheria work for him.' Our evident 
satisfaction made him communicative; and he went 
on to say that Captain Sutter was a very rich man, 
and always glad to see his country people. We asked 
for his house. He answered that it was just over the 
hill before us, and offered, if we would wait a moment 
to take his horse and conduct us to it. We readily 
accepted his civil offer. In a short distance we came 
in sight of the fort; and passing on the way the house 
of a settler on the opposite side (a Mr. Sinclair), we 
forded the river; and in a few miles were met a short 
distance from the fort by Captain Sutter himself. 
He gave us a most frank and cordial reception — con- 
ducted us immediately to his residence — and under his 
hospitable roof had a night of rest, enjoyment, and 
refreshment, which none but ourselves could appre- 
ciate." 

Gen. Fremont the next day started back with 
provisions and horses to meet and relieve the main 
body of the party, who were several days in the 
rear. He met them near the forks of the river, 
" Each man, weak and emaciated, leading a horse 
or mule as weak and emaciated as himself." Of 
sixty-seven horses and mules, only thirty-three had 
survived that terrible journey across the mountains. 
Many of them had been killed for food, while others 
had died of starvation or exhaustion or lay at the 
bottom of rocky canons, down which they had 
plunged from the precipitous heights above. Many 
valuable specimens, collected during the long jour- 
ney were lost. 

It was in the few years prior to the discovery of 
gold that the genuine pioneers of California braved 
the unknown clangers of the plains and mountains, 
with the intention of settling in the fair valley, of 
which so much was said and so little known, and 



04 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



building a homo for themselves and their children. 
Man}' of these immigrants crossed the mountains by 
nearly the same route pursued by 1 he Central Pacific 
Railroad, except that they followed down Bear river 
to the plains. The first BOttlement reached by them 
was that of Theodore Sicard, at Johnson's Crossing, 
on the Placer county side, and a few miles below 
Camp Far West. This settlement was made in 1844, 
and was the first point reached by the members of 
the ill-starred Donncr Party in 1847. Opposite 
Sicard's settlement was Johnson's ranch, owned by 
William Johnson and Sebastian Kyser, who settled 
there in 1845. Johnson's Crossing was for years a 
favorite landmark and rallying point. 

The next Winter after Fremont made his perilous 
crossing of the Sierras, another party, a band of 
hardy pioneers, worked their laborious way through 
the drifting snow of the mountains, and entered the 
beautiful valley, one of them remaining in his snow- 
bound camp at Donner lake until returning Spring 
made his rescue possible. The party consisted of 
twenty-three men: John Flomboy; Captain Stevens, 
now a resident of Kern county, Cal.; Joseph Foster; 
Dr. Townscnd; Allen Montgomery; Moses Schallen- 
bcrger, now living in San Jose, Cal.; G-. Greenwood, 
and his two sons, John and Britt; James Miller, now 
of San Eafael, Cal.; Mr. Calvin; William Martin; 
Patrick Martin; Dennis Martin; Martin Murphy, and 
his five sons; Mr. Hitchcock, and son. They left 
Council Bluffs, May 20, 1844, en route to California, of 
the fertility of whose soil and the mildness of whose 
climate glowing accounts had been given. The dan- 
gers of the plains and mountains were passed, and 
the party reached the Humboldt river, when an 
Indian named Truckee presented himself, and 
offered to guide them to California. After question- 
ing him closely, they employed him as their guide, 
and as they progressed, found that the statements 
he had made about the route were fully verified. 
He soon became a great favorite among them, and 
when they reached the lower crossing of the Truckeu 
river, now Wadsworth, they gave his name to the 
beautiful stream, so pleased were they by the pure 
water and abundance of fish to which he had 
directed them. The stream will ever live in history 
as the Truckee river, and the fish, the famous 
Truckee trout, will continue to delight the palate of 
the epicure for years to come. 

From this point the party pushed on to the beauti- 
ful mountain lake, whose shores but two years' later 
witnessed a scene of suffering and death unequaled 
in the annals of America's pioneers. Here, at Don- 
ner lake, it was decided to build a cabin and store 
their goods until Spring, as the cattle were too 
exhausted to drag them further. The cabin Avas 
built by Allen Montgomery, Joseph Foster, and 
Moses Schallenberger, all young men used to pioneer 
life, and who felt fully able to maintain themselves 
by their rifles upon the bears and dear that seemed 
so plentiful in the mountains. The cabin was built 



of pine sapplings, with a roof of brush and raw- 
hides; if was twelve by fourteen feet and about eight 
feel high, with a rude ehimney,and but one aperture 
for both a window and door; it was about a quarter 
of a mile below the foot of the lake, and is of 
peculiar interest, as it was the first habitation built 
by white men within the limits of Nevada county, 
the entering wedge of civilization that in a few years 
wrested these beautiful hills with their wealth of 
gold from the bands of the barbarous Digger, and 
brought one more country under the dominion of 
intelligence. 

The cabin was completed in two days, and the 
party moved on across the summit, leaving but a 
few provisions and a half-starved and emaciated 
cow for the support of the young men, who had 
undertaken a task, the magnitude of which they 
little dreamed. It was about the middle of Novem- 
ber when the party left Donner lake, and the3 r 
arrived at Sutter's Fort on the 15th of December, 
1844, the journey down the mountains consuming a 
month of toil and privation. The day after the 
cabin was completed a heavy fall of snow com- 
menced and continued for several days, and while 
the journeying party were plunging and toiling 
through the storm and drifts, the three young men 
found themselves surrounded by a bed of snow from 
ten to fifteen feet deep. The game had fled down 
the mountains to escape the storm, and Avhen the 
poor cow was half consumed the three snow-bound 
prisoners began to realize the danger of their situa- 
tion. Alarmed by the prospect of starvation, they 
determined to force their way across the barrier of 
snow. In one day's journey they reached the sum- 
mit, but poor Schallenberger was here taken with 
severe cramps, and was unable to proceed the follow- 
ing day. Every few feet that he advanced in his 
attempt to struggle along, he fell to the ground- 
What could they do? To remain was death, and 
yet they could not abandon their sick comrade among 
the drifting snows on the summit of the Sierras. 
Foster and Montgomery Averc placed in a trying 
situation. Schallenberger told them that he would 
remain alone if tbey Avould conduct him back to the 
cabin. They did so, and providing everything they 
could for his comfort, took their departure, leaAung 
him, sick and feeble, in the heart of the siioav -locked 
mountains. 

A strong will can accomplish wonders, and a deter- 
mination to live is sometimes stronger than death, 
and young Schallenberger by a great exertion was 
soon able to rise from his bed and seek for food. 
Among the goods stored in the cabin he found some 
steel-traps, with which he caught enough foxes to sus- 
tain himself in his little mountain cabin, until the 
doors of his prison Avere unlocked by the melting 
rays of the vernal sun, and a party of friends came 
to his relief. On the 1st of March, 1845, he, too, 
arrived at Sutter's Fort, having spent three months 



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EARLY SETTLEMENT. 



G5 



in the drifting snows of the " Snowy Mountains " — 
the Sierra Nevada. 

The after history of the Indian Truekee, whose 
name so many objects bear, is an interesting one. 
Passing down the mountains, he arrived at Sutter's 
Fort with the main party, and remained until the 
breaking out of the war in 1846, when he joined 
Fremont's Battalion, and was ever afterwards 
known as Captain Truekee. He was quite a favorite 
with Fremont, who presented him with a Bible with 
the donor's autograph on the fly leaf. This with a 
copy of the St. Louis Republican, Captain Truekee 
jealously preserved until the time of his death. 
After the American conquest, Truekee returned to 
his people, east of the. Sierras, and when the rich 
silver discoveries in the Washoe region brought 
thousands of white men there, he became their fast 
friend and a universal favorite among the miners. 
The Indian camp where he lived was in the Palmyra 
District, Lyon county, Nevada, about a mile from 
Como, and near the spring where the town of 
Palmyra was subsequently built. One day in 1860, 
Captain Truekee went to the mining camp at Como 
to ask the men what remedy he should use for a 
lai-ge swelling on his neck. The men thought he 
had been bitten by a tarantula and advised him to 
apply a slice of bacon. Poor Captain Truekee died 
that night, his last request being to be buried by the 
white men and in the white man's style. The miners 
dug a grave near Como, in the croppings of the old 
Goliah ledge, and good Captain Truekee was laid 
away to rest, the Bible and the paper he had 
cherished so long lying by his side. 

The terrible sufferings of the Donner party have 
been already portrayed. The groans of the starv- 
ing, and the wails of the dying, crazed with hunger, 
will ever haunt the shores of Donner lake, and the 
winds as thej- moan among the drooping branches 
of the pines, will whisper tales of suffering such as 
few have seen, and the most vivid imagination fails 
to realize. The two cabins built by the Donner 
party near that of Schallenberger, and which formed 
the camp of the Breens, Graves, and Murphys, were 
the second monuments of civilization in Nevada 
county. About two weeks before the Donner party 
found the way across the summit barred by the snow, 
another immigrant train passed in safety. Among 
these immigrants were Claude Chana, who now lives 
at Wheatland, Yuba county, and Charles Covillaud, 
one of the original proprietors of Marysville, and 
who married Mary Murphy, a member of the Don- 
ner party, from whom the name Marysville was 
derived. The widely different experiences of these 
two parties in crossing the mountains, but illustrate 
the changes that can there be wrought by a few days 
of snow. This party also followed down Bear river 
to Johnson's ranch, from which point the relief parties 
were sent to Donner lake. The years 1846, 7 and 8, 
saw many trains of immigrants on their way to 
Oregon and California, those for this State crossing; 
9 fe 



the mountains by several routes, though most of 
them came by way of Truekee river. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



AMADOR COUNTY. 



Early History — Origin of the Name of Carson Pass — River and 
Valley — First White Men in the Territory — Sutter's Whip- 
saw-mill — Discovery of Gold — Organization of Calaveras 
County — Removal of County-Seat from Double Springs to 
Jackson — Second Removal to Mokelumne Hill — First Set of 
County Officers — Second Set of County Officers — Members 
of the Legislature — Miscellaneous Matters in Calaveras — Joa- 
quin's Career — Chased by Indians — Mokelumne Hill in Early 
Days — Green and Vogan's Line of Stages — Stories of Griz- 
zlies — Bull and Bear Fight. 

A general history of the State has been given, in 
which but little mention has been made of that por- 
tion of the territory out of which Amador county 
was afterwards carved. It is probable that some 
trappers occasionally visited the lower portions of 
Mokelumne river, though not often, for the Indians, 
who inhabited that portion of the country, watched 
with jealous eye the intrusion of strangers for any 
purpose whatever. The Hudson's Bay Company 
had a trail from French Camp to Oregon, which 
was most of the way through the tules, and of 
course far to the west of the present limits. The 
" Arroyo Seco " grant purports to have been made 
in 1840, but it is quite certain that no Mexican had 
ever set his foot on the hills, or had ever seen 
them except far away, from the Diablo range of 
mountains. Those persons who accompanied Gen- 
eral Sutter in his campaign against Mikelkos in 
1843, might have seen the Lyons mountains twenty 
miles to the east. As early as 1840, according to 
James Alexander Forbes, then the agent for the 
Hudson Bay Company in Alta California, all attempts 
to raise cattle on the east side of the San Joaquin, 
had been an utter failure, the Indians invariably 
driving off the stock and destroying the ranches. 

CARSON PASS, VALLEY, AND RIVER. 

The impression is generally prevailing that Carson 
discovered the pass bearing his name. In the famous 
trip across the mountains Fremont and Carson trav- 
eled northward from Walker's river, crossing the 
river bearing Carson's name in their course, making 
the crossing of the summit by way of Truekee and 
Lake Tahoe. The river was then named in honor of 
Carson, the pass and valley being named from the 
river, so that it is quite probable that Carson never 
crossed the mountains at that point until 1853, when 
he came through with a division of IT. S. troops 
under Colonel Steptoe. 

The first authentic report of the presence of white 
men in the county was in 1846, when Sutter, with a 
party of Indians and a few white men, sawed lum- 
ber for a ferry-boat in a cluster of sugar pines on 
the ridge between Sutter and Amador creeks, about 
four miles above the towns of Amador and Sutter. 
In 1849 the remains of the timbers and the sills over 



06 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



the pit were in good preservation though showing 
indications of being older than the gold-hunting 
immigration. The partially filled-up pit may still he 
seen. 

At this time the country was one unbroken forest 
from the plains to the Sierra Nevadas, broken only 
by grassy glades like lone valley, Volcano flats and 
other places. The tall pine waved from every hill, 
the .white and black oak alternating and prevailing 
in the lower valleys. The timber in the lower foot- 
hills and valleys, though continuous, was so scattering 
that grasses, ferns, and other plants grew between, 
giving the country the appearance of a well-carcd-for 
park. The quiet and repose of these ancient forests, 
seemed like the results of thousands of years of 
peaceful occupation, and at every turn in the trails 
which the immigrants followed, they half expected 
to see the familiar old homestead, orchard, cider- 
press and grain fields, the glories of the older settle- 
ments in the Eastern States. These things, after 
thirty years' residence, are beginning to appear, but 
this settlement is the subject of our history, and 
must not be anticipated. How much the ancient syl-* 
van gods were astonished and shocked at the irrup- 
tion of the races -that tore up the ground and felled 
the woods, the poets of some other generation will 
relate. 

DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN AMADOR COUNTY. 

In the latter part of March, 1848, a man arrived 
in Stockton, then called Tuleburgh, bringing with 
him specimens of scale-gold, from Sutter's mill. He 
informed the people there of the recent discoveries 
on the American river, the specimens confirming his 
report; whereupon, Captain Weber, catching a spark 
from the flame, fitted out a prospecting party, con- 
sisting of settlers on his grant, some strangers that 
chanced that way, and a force of Si-yak-um-na In- 
dians, and commenced the exploration of the country 
east of Stockton, beginning at the Stanislaus, and 
working north. The fever was on them; haste and 
nuggets their watchwords; inexperience their com- 
panion, and failure the result, until they had reached 
Mokelumne river, where the Captain decided to 
make a more deliberate search, the result of which 
was the discovery by him, on that river, of the first 
gold found in the section' of country, that was after- 
wards known as the Southern mines. Owing to 
their more careful search and added experience, 
gold was found north from this river, in every gulch 
and stream to the American river. Arriving at Sut- 
ter's mill, it was decided to commence mining at 
what was called afterward Weber's creek, near 
Placerville. As soon as he had got work on Weber 
creek well under way, he returned to Stockton, and 
organized a party to explore the country south of 
the Mokelumne river. In a short time they re- 
turned with finer specimens than had been found at 
Coloma. A mining company was formed, which 
afterwards gave name to Wood's creek, Murphy's 



creek, Angel's Camp, and other places. Then com- 
menced the general working of the " Southern mines," 
the rush ofminers, the immigration which built up the 
flourishing counties of Amador, San Joaquin, Cala- 
veras, Tuolumne, and the changing of the world's 
commerce. 

The Mokelumne river, the gulches at Drytown, 
Volcano, and lone, were mined extensively in 1848. 
General Sutter and party tried it near the town of 
Sutter, but he was disgusted with the opening of a 
saloon near his works, and left the mines, never to 
return. The emigration from the Eastern States, 
by way of the plains and the Horn, brought a large 
accession to the pojmlation, and brought about the 
necessity of some political organization. El Dorado 
county was organized with Dry creek as its southern 
boundary, Calaveras, with Dry creek as its northern 
limits. From these two territories, Amador was 
afterwards carved, first in 1854, by setting otf the 
territory north of the Mokelumne from Calaveras, 
and in 1856-57, by the addition of the strip from El 
Dorado lying south of the Cosumnes, the boundaries 
farther east being rather indefinite, as will be here- 
after seen. A short account of the organizations of 
these two counties, will suffice for this work. Cala- 
veras county was organized in the session of the 
Legislature, in 1849-50. It is said that it took its 
name from an immense number of skulls found on 
that river. The story was that a great number of 
Indians coming down from the Sierras to fish for 
salmon, were all slaughtered. There is a probability 
that they were the result of the fearful mortality, 
before mentioned, occurring among all the valley 
tribes, from the head waters of the Sacramento to 
those of the San Joaquin, in 1830. The county took 
its name from the river. 

The first officers were William Fowle Smith, County 
Judge; John Hanson, Sheriff; Colonel Collyer, County 
Clerk; A. B. Mudge, Treasurer; H. A. Carter, Prose- 
cuting Attorney. Pleasant Valley, better known as 
Double Springs, was designated as the county seat. 
The courts were held in a long tent, eight or ten 
feet wide, imported from China. The first Grand 
Jury held its sessions under a big tree. According to 
all accounts, justice was anything but a blind god- 
dess. Very contradictory reports are current in 
regard to the chai'acters of the officers. "Fowle 
Smith," an Eastern man, was represented by some 
as a miserable concentration of all meanness that 
was supposed to characterize that kind of men; 
stinginess, cowardice, and "all that sort of thing." 
Others say that he was honest, and would not 
countenance Colonel Collyer's peccadillos, hence, their 
mutual dislike. He has since taken to preaching, 
and is said to be causing great revivals in some of 
the Eastern States. 

Colonel Collyer, according to the same authority, 
was a southern man, with southern virtues in excess; 
pompous, portly, genial, brave, and reckless, with a 
habit of calling everybody, who crossed his will, a 



EARLY SETTLEMENT. 



67 



-d son of a 



, and threatening to cut his heart 
out; a treatment he had applied to Judge Smith, 
until the latter was seriously afraid the Colonel was 
in earnest. Among the peculiarities of Collyer, was 
the pocketing of all fees received in his official capac- 
ity, leaving Judge Smith to collect his salary, or 
extras, as he might. Collyer is said to have natural- 
ized sixty foreigners in one day, charging them one 
ounce each, all of which he applied to his own benefit. 
Mudge may be described in a few words, as putting 
all the money received into his own pocket, and 
decamping when it became too heavy to carry 
around. John Hanson, Sheriff, now engaged in 
business in San Francisco, was a native of Maine, 
and, probably by attending strictly to his business, 
made no extraordinary history. The same may be 
said of H. A. Carter, the Prosecuting Attorney, a 
native of New York. He now resides in lone valley. 

CHANGE OP COUNTY'SEAT. 

According to the laws of the sessions of the Leg- 
islature of 1849-50, whenever a majority of the 
voters of any county petitioned for an election fixing 
the county seat, the Judge might order an election 
on thirty days' notice. In accordance with this pro- 
vision an election was held in 1850, the two contest- 
ing j>laces being Jackson and Mokelumne Hill. When 
the first count or estimate was made up, Mokelumne 
Hill was said to have been the successful town, and 
a team was sent to Double Springs to remove the 
archives ; but a subsequent count by Judge Smith 
made Jackson the county seat. Smith was openly 
charged with fraud in the second counting. The 
whole affair was probably as near a farce as elections 
ever get to be. The manner of changing the archives 
from Double Springs will be more fully set forth in 
the township history of Jackson. The seat of jus- 
tice remained at Jackson until 1852, when it was 
transferred by election to Mokelumne Hill. The 
general vote in 1851 was: Democratic, 1,780; Whig, 
1,207. 

County officers, 1852: Sam. Booker, District At- 
torney; A. Laforge, Treasurer; Jo. Douglass, County 
Clerk; Ben. Marshall, Sheriff; C. Creaner, District 
Judge. 

1852— Pierce, 2,848; Scott, 2,200. 

1853 — The officers of Calaveras county were : 
Treasurer, A. Laforge; County Clerk, Jo. Douglass; 
Sheriff, Ben Marshall; Prosecuting Attorney, Wm. 
Higby; County Judge, Henry Eno. 

Members of the Legislature: Senators — E. D. 
Sawyer, Charles Leake. Assemblymen — A. J. 
Houghtaling, Martin Rowen, "W. C. Pratt, C. Daniels 
vice Carson, deceased. 

The vote for Governor was: John Bigler (Demo- 
crat) 2,545; William Waldo (Whig) 2,212. 
joaquin's career in amador. 

This renowned bandit commenced his career in 
this county. His exploits are notorious, and like all 
events of that kind, are multiplied and exaggerated 



until the clearest sight can no longer distinguish the 
true from the fabulous. Whether he was induced to 
commence a career of murder and robbery on account 
of being flogged at Jamison's ranch, will always 
remain an uncertainty. His first operations were to 
mount himself and party with the best horses in the 
country. Judge Carter, in 1852, had a valuable and 
favorite horse which for safety and frequent use was 
usually kept staked a short distance from the house. 
One morning the horse was missing. Cochran, a 
partner in the farming business, started in pursuit of 
the horse and thief. The horse was easily tracked, 
as in expectation of something of this kind the toe 
corks on the shoes had been put on on a line with 
the road instead of across it. The track led Cochran 
across Dry creek, across the plains and thence toward 
the mines several miles, where the rider seemed 
accompanied by several other horsemen. Coming to 
a public house kept by one Clark, he saw the horse 
with several others, hitched at the door. Going in 
he inquired for the party who rode his horse, saying 
that it had been stolen. He was told he was a Mex- 
ican, and was then at dinner with several others. 
Clark, who was a powerful and daring man, offered 
to arrest him, and suiting the action to the word, 
entered the dining-room in company with Cochran, 
and, placing his hand on Joaquin's shoulder — for it 
was he — said: "You are my prisoner." "I think 
not," said Joaquin; at the same time shooting Clark 
through the head, who fell dead. A general fusil- 
lade ensued, in which one of the Mexicans was shot 
by the cook, who took part in the affair, Cochran 
receiving a slight wound. The Mexicans mounted 
their horses and escaped, leaving Carter's horse 
hitched to the fence. 

visit to Sutherland's ranch. 
Jack Sutherland, now residing on King's river, 
had, in early days, a ranch on Dry creek, below 
lone, and also one near Plymouth. Soon after mov- 
ing to the former place, Billy Sutherland, then 
seventeen or eighteen, who had charge of the place 
in the absence of his father, sold a band of cattle for 
■several thousand dollars in gold. After the pur- 
chasers had gone with their property, he took a 
notion to count the money again, before putting it 
away in the safe, which, in this instance, was a hole 
in a log, and emptied the sack on the table. While 
piling it up in hundreds and thousands, a shadow 
darkened the door. Looking up, who should he see 
but Joaquin, the famous bandit. To say that he 
was not afraid would be incredible, for Joaquin 
usually traveled with a band, which, probably was 
not far off; but he immediately conceived a plan to 
save his money and life. Resistance was out of the 
question; for he was alone, and no houses within 
miles. He politely invited Joaquin to alight, and 
in answer to the question whether he could stay all 
night with his party, replied in the affirmative. 
Joaquin called to his party, in Spanish, that he had 
found some friends, telling them to unsaddle. They 



08 



HISTOID OF AMADOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



were fierce and sullen looking fellows, but he trusted 
to out-maneuver them, lie pretended not to know 
his guests, and set about getting their suppers 
Alter eating, the leader asked young Sutherland if 
he was not afraid to stay alone with so much money 
in the house; and inquired what he would do if 
Joaquin should come around? Sutherland replied 
that Joaquin was a gentleman, and would not harm 
his friends; that he and his father were acquainted, 
and referred to some transactions which had oc- 
curred, in which his father had benefited Joaquin. 
"Are you Jack Sutherland's son?" says Joaquin. 
"1 am," says Sutherland. After some further 
conversation, they laid down on their saddle blan- 
kets, and slej;>t until morning. At parting, Joaquin 
paid his bill, remarking that if any persons coming 
along during the day should inquire for a party 
answering their description, it would be as well for 
him to remember nothing about their having been 
there. Young Sutherland thought so also. 

During the latter part of October, 1852, Joaquin 
was prowling around the northern part of Calaveras, 
in the vicinity of Oleta (Fiddletown). One day, one 
of the Mexican women told an American that Joaquin 
was in the town. As it was a common thing for 
Mexicans to ride from one camp to another, the 
presence of strangers caused no remark. His name, 
however, was sufficient to raise a storm, and in a 
few minutes he was being hunted. He was dressed 
in the usual Spanish style, with wide-brimmed hat, 
serape, white drawers, and pantaloons opening up 
the sides. When he found he was betrayed, he 
jumped on a table in a gambling room, flourished a 
pistol around his head, said he was Joaquin, and 
defied the town to take him. This bravado may 
have been necessary to ensure his retreat, for he 
and his party left immediately, with half the town 
in pursuit. As it was, he came near being sur- 
rounded, and had to force his way out. "Am. 
Parks " had hold of his bridle, but was induced to 
let loose by a shot in his face, which, however, only 
grazed the skin. The party of three or four left, 
amid a shower of bullets from revolvers, none of 
them taking effect, except, perhaps, on the horses; 
either this or the party were not well mounted, for 
in the pursuit which took place, the footmen kept 
well up, some Indians, who joined in the chase, 
being in the advance. Joaquin took the trail to- 
wards Slate creek, and. thence across Dry creek 
towards Lower Kanckeria. Fresh men joined the 
pursuers at every gulch. To get rid of the Indians, 
the Mexicans stripped themselves first of serape, 
spurs, and everything that could be thrown off 
hastily. At the crossing of Dry creek, a half mile 
below Dead Man's creek, a long-legged Missourian, 
with a still longer rifle, came up within forty or 
fifty yards, but was afraid to fire on account of that 
terrible revolver of Joaquin's, which never missed. 
The Missourian never will get out of the range of 
ridicule, that has been heaped on him ever since. 



The Mexicans left their horses, and escaped in the 
thick chaparral on the divide between Rancheria 
and Dry creeks. That night they made their way 
into Lower Rancheria, accounting for their demor- 
alization by saying they had been chased by Indians 
which was true. 

CHASED BY INDIANS. 
In the Winter of 1850-51 a party of four or five 
men, of whom A Askcy, now of Jackson, was one, 
were hunting deer in the mountains a few miles 
above Yolcano. Venison being worth fifty cents a 
pound they could afford to take some risks. One 
day, while following a wounded deer, Askcy dis- 
covered a party of Indians, whom, by their dress, he 
judged to be Washoes, who had the reputation of being 
much better fighters than the California Indians. 
They saw him about the same time, and, com- 
ing up, professed to be very friendly, wanting to 
shake hands, which he prudently declined. A con- 
ference, mostly by signs, ensued, in which both par- 
ties agreed to pursue the deer, Askey taking one 
side of the hill, the Indians the other. He did not 
follow the deer far, but made the very best time to 
the camp that his short legs would admit of. In the 
morning, reinforced by his companions, he made a 
reconnoissance in force, and, as he expected, found 
that the Indians had made an effort to cut him off, 
the tracks in the snow showing that they had fol- 
lowed him until they sighted the camp. The follow- 
ing day an old Indian came peering about, and, by 
signs, intimated that the bark and wood set around 
the hut would keep out arrows. Suspecting him of 
being a spy, they thought best to detain him until 
morning, when he was dismissed with an application 
of a number ten boot to his rear that accelerated his 
departure. 

MOKELUMNE HILL IN EARLY DAYS. 

In early days Mokelumne Hill was reputed one of 
the liveliest places in the mines. It had the misfort- 
une to be settled by a heterogenous population — 
Yankees, Westerners, and Southerners, from the 
United States; and French, German, and Spanish, 
from Europe; and Chilenos and Mexicans. Death by 
violence seemed to be the rule. For seventeen suc- 
cessive weeks, according to Dr. Soher, of San Fran- 
cisco, a man was killed between Saturday night and 
Sunday morning. Five men were once killed within 
a week. The condition of things became so desper- 
ate that a vigilance committee was resolved upon, 
which, however, did not continue in existence long. 
One man, who was hung for stealing, confessed, just 
before his death, to having committed eight mur- 
ders between Mokelumne Hill and Sonora. He was 
a Mexican, of powerful physique and desperate 
character. Shooting was resorted to on the most 
trivial occasions. Two strangers sat quietly taking 
a dinner at a restaurant, and talking with each other. 
A gambler seated near, fancying that he heard his 
name mentioned, drew his revolver and shot one 




li — ■ -,, 



EARLY SETTLEMENT. 



69 



man dead. The conversation proved to be about 
mining matters which did not concern the gambler. 
A year after, to a day, the surviving man, who 
was talking with the person slain, had occasion to 
pass through the town, and remembering the former 
shooting of his partner, concluded not to stop, but a 
roysterer saw him, and disliking something in his 
appearance, drew a bead on him and fired; the aim 
was spoiled by some one throwing up the pistol at 
the moment of the explosion. The stranger thought 
it a curious country; his partner was killed a year 
before for some harmless talk; he was shot at while 
quietly passing along the streets. 

THE MINES. 

The gidches around the hill were very rich, and in 
the Winter of 1850-51 the leads were traced into the 
hills. The j'ield was enormous, even fabulous. The 
hill is supposed to be a continuation of the same 
wash that made Tunnel Hill rich. 

THE FRENCH WAR. 

A partj* of Frenchmen opened a hole in the rich- 
est part of the hill. Some Americans mining near 
them conceived the plan of driving them out, on the 
score of their not being citizens. The Frenchmen 
resisted, and the Americans raised the cry that the 
French had hoisted a French flag and defied the 
Government, and called on everybody to arm and 
drive them out. One Blankenship was foremost in 
the matter. The Frenchmen lost their claim. Dur- 
ing the time of the difficulty, hundreds of persons 
jumped into the hole, which was about fifty feet square, 
and carried away dirt which would pay from fifty to 
one hundred dollars' per sack. The Frenchmen had 
camped in the hole, cooking, eating, and sleeping- 
there, to prevent other parties stealing the dirt or 
jumping the claim. Though the people generally 
united to drive the original holders out, none can 
now be found to justify the expulsion, which is now 
looked upon as a downright robbery. 

STAGING — GREEN AND VOGAN's LINES. 

Charle3 Green and John Vogan commenced the 
business in 1853, running from Jackson, through 
Drytown, to Sacramento in one day. The line prov- 
ing profitable, it was extended through Mokelumne 
Hill to Sonora, making the whole distance in one 
day, through fare being twenty dollars. The cost 
of stocking a line was enormous. None of the 
horses cost less than three hundred dollars each, and 
some of them twice that. Concord wagons cost 
from six hundred to one thousand dollars, and Troy 
coaches twenty-five hundred to three thousand dol- 
lars. A good driver was worth one hundred and 
fifty dollars per month; hostlers one hundred dol- 
lars. Hay and barley were also high, sometimes 
one hundred dollars per ton. Notwithstanding 
these expenses, the line was profitable, the coaches 
generally being loaded to their utmost capacity. 
Staging then and now were quite different affairs. 



Then there were no roads, the coaches following the 
trails, or zigzaging around the dust-holes in Sum- 
mer, and mud-holes in Winter. There were no 
bridges, and sometimes driver and horses were lost. 
During the Summer season the trip was rather 
pleasant, but when the coach stuck in a raging 
stream of water four or five feet deep, the situation 
made a timid man pray and a wicked one swear. 
The highwaymen occasionally levied tribute on the 
passengers, who, though armed, would find them- 
selves unexpectedly confronted with a pistol in such 
close proximity that it was useless to resist. The 
line was afterwards consolidated with the California 
Stage Company, which proved to be a losing con- 
cern. 

MYSTERIOUS SICKNESS. 

In early days N. W. Spaulding, since Mayor of 
Oakland, and Judge Thompson, of Mokelumne Hill, 
now a resident of San Francisco, were living in the 
same cabin, and both had a kind of rash or breaking out 
on the skin, which was very annoying, causing an 
intolerable itching. Dr. Soher, an eminent physician, 
was consulted in the matter. He said it was pro- 
duced by a feverish condition of the blood, induced 
by a change from the cool air on an ocean voyage to 
the dry atmosphere of California, and recommended 
laxative medicines, which they took for several 
weeks without any beneficial effects. The matter 
became rather serious. A closer inspection revealed 
the cause of the sickness to be an army of grey- 
backs, who had taken up all the available ground 
on their bodies, and were doing their best to work it 
out, their operations being, happily, on the surface, 
however, tunnel mining not having been discovered. 
The clothing and cabin, even, were swarming with 
the vermin. A three days' campaign with boiling 
water, supplemented with a little unguentim, 
expelled the trespassers. The matter was considered 
too disgraceful to speak of publicly, and they paid 
the doctor's bill, sixty-five dollars each, without 
grumbling. Thirty years' silence over so good a 
thing having become painful, mutual threats of 
exposure brought out the story at a recent meeting 
of the San Francisco Pioneer Society, amid shouts 
of laughter. They were not the first or last 
persons thoroughly astonished at the unexpected 
presence of grey-backs in overwhelming numbers. 

ADVENTURE WITH A GRIZZLY NEAR VOLCANO. 

A genuine grizzly was discovered in a ravine a 
mile or two from town, and a valiant party, armed 
with axes, knives, pistols, and a few guns, started 
after him. When the huge fellow, curious to see 
what all the fuss was about, raised himself up on 
his quarters to look around, all wisely ran but one 
man, who had faith in his rifle, which carried a ball 
about as large as a pea. He fired and hit the bear, 
only to enrage him however, for the ball hardly 
more than stung him. He soon came up with the 
man, caught his head in his mouth, tearing off 



70 



EISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALI l'< »I!\IA. 



nearly the whole seal]), and otherwise lacerating the 
man, who surrendered at discretion, leaving the 
bear to make his own terms. By remaining entirely 
passive, the man induced his bearship, Ursa, the ter 
rible. to suspend farther punishment. After the 
bear loft, tho man contrived to crawl towards his 
home. A short time alter a party better armed pur- 
sued the bear and killed him. Curious to see what 
effect the pea rifle had on the bear, they examined 
his hide, and found that the ball penetrated it and 
lodged against the shoulder-blade, without injuring 
the animal at all. The bear was a monster. 
When loaded into an ordinary wagon-bed, eleven 
feet long, his legs stuck out behind fully three feet, 
making his total length not far from fourteen feet. 
He was poor and tough, and was not considered fit for 
food. When discovered he was feeding on carrion. 

THE JOHNSTONS' ENCOUNTER WITH A GRIZZLY. 

This occurred near the Bl Dorado county line. 
The bear had been seen several times and was known 
to frequent a patch of thick chaparral. A party of 
ten or twelve persons, among whom were the John- 
stons, Jim and Jack, started out to find him. They 
succeeded in getting a fatal shot at his majesty the 
bear, which contrary to all expectation, retreated 
into the thick brush. From the amount of blood 
along his trail they judged that he was too severely 
wounded to be dangei-ous, and they imprudently fol- 
lowed him. The infuriated animal charged upon the 
Johnstons, who were foremost, and brought one of 
them to the ground, his gun during the encounter 
being thrown out of reach. The other fired when the 
opportunity presented itself to do so without endan- 
gering his brother's life, again wounding the bear, 
which left the first one to pursue the other. It does 
not seem that they succeeded in loading again, but 
each endeavored to draw the bear away from the 
other by pounding him over the head with the gun, 
when the animal would get the other down and com- 
mence again gnawing and lacerating his arms, 
head and body. It was a desperate fight now to get 
away. The balance of the party had deserted them 
at the first sight of the animal, when he made his 
charge, leaving the two to their fate. Jack's arms 
were now so useless from the repeated crushings, that 
he could no longer raise the gun to strike the bear, 
but still intent to get his brother away, he pushed 
his shoulder against the animal, which would leave 
the other for a moment. The creature was a monster 
in size, his back being nearly on a level with Jack's 
shoulder. The struggle seemed hopeless, but at the 
last moment the bear, becoming exhausted or sub- 
dued by the severe wounds, gave a kind of snarl and 
again beat a retreat. One of the men was now 
utterly helpless and the other one not much better; he 
however, succeeded in dragging his brother out of 
the brush to the open ground. He was taken away 
in a wagon and cared for, and recovered after several 
months. The crippled hand and arm, and terrible 



scai> all over his person, attest the severity of the 
contest. After their recovery they revisited the 
place. They found t lie skeleton of I he bear, which 
was of unheard of dimensions. The stories of hears 
weighing fifteen hundred pounds, to those who have 
seen only the hears of two or three hundred pounds 
weight, which frequent the mountains of the Eastern 
States, seem utterly absurd. Making allowance for 
the exaggeration natural under some circumstances, 
there can be no doubt of their occasionally reaching 
to a monstrous size, perhaps weighing seventeen or 
eighteen hundred pounds. 

KILLING A GRIZZLY. 

In 1850 grizzlies were occasionally met with, and 
they hardly ever gave the road, though not apt to 
attack man unless provoked. It was Mr. Spaulding's 
good fortune to have one of the most thrilling 
adventures with one, that is recorded. At that time he 
was in charge of a saw-mill and had occasion to visit 
Mokelumne Hill late in the day. The trail led 
through a deep, shadowy glen which the animals 
sometimes visited, trampling down the brush and leav- 
ing tracks twice as large as a Hoosier's. As a mat- 
ter of prudence he took his rifle promising himself to 
" fight it out on that line" if he met one. The day- 
light trip was well enough, no " bars " putting in an 
appearance, but on his return after night-fall, as he 
descended into the cool, shadowy part of the glen, he 
heard the ominous cracking of the brush, and the 
sound of footfalls along the trail. Nearer and nearer 
came the animal that was never known to give the 
road. To turn back was contrary to our hero's prin- 
ciples. Pierpont's 

"Stand! 
The ground's your own, my braves. 
Will ye give it up to slaves ? 
Look ye for greener graves ?" 

Prom the old school reader, flashed through his mind, 
and he stood! With gun cocked and hair on end, he 
w T aited the onset. As the outline of the animal came 
dimly into view he took as good aim as possible and 
fired. An unearthly growling was succeeded by the 
monster's tumbling, rolling, and tearing down the 
trail to the bottom of the deep ravine. It was evi- 
dent the animal was severely wounded, and like all 
grizzlies, would be then most dangerous, even if the 
wound was mortal. To go down into the dark and 
thick woods and fight the grizzly alone, would be 
dangerous, perhaps fatal to him, for had not the 
grizzly proved a match for many men even when 
fatally wounded ? Life was bright before him; hopes 
of meeting — well, no matter whom, and renewing 
the tender relations; hopes of wealth, of political 
success, of honor — were not these worth more than 
the chance of killing a grizzly ? He went back on 
the trail, and making a wide circuit, reached the 
camp at a late hour, exhausted with the excitement 
and his long walk. After hearing his adventures the 
men made up a company to visit the ravine the next 



EAKLY SETTLEMENT. 



71 



morning and finish the monster. All the guns were 
heavily loaded, and plans laid for approaching the 
animal with the least danger. The most vulnerable 
parts of the grizzly were duly discussed, some con- 
tending for an eye shot, others a side shot, at the 
heart, etc. Cautiously they descended into the deep 
ravine, avoiding clumps of trees or chaparral. At 
the bottom they found signs of the conflict — blood 
and broken brush. One, bolder than the rest, fol- 
lowed the trail, and — a great roar of laughter, with 
"Darned if it aint Dr. Herschner's old jackass," 
changed the sentiment of the party. The poor, 
patient old fellow had packed many a load of grub to 
the miners, and would, when relieved of his burden, 
return home alone, but he had made his last trip. 
Forty dollars paid for the animal, but many forties 
would not pay for the liquors and cigars at Spaulding's 
expense; and the end is not yet, for a mention of hunt- 
ing grizzlies will still bring out the best in the house. 

BULL AND BEAR TIGHT. 

In the days when Calaveras and Amador were 
one, the population of the ancient capital were wont 
to amuse themselves with bull and bear fights. Sun- 
day, by custom, was the day set apart for these 
exhibitions, for, on that day, everybody came to 
town. A large portion of the population was Span- 
ish, and anything pertaining to the fighting of bulls 
would draw out the full Mexican population, senors 
sefioras, and sefioritas. Spanish cattle were plenti- 
ful, and there were plenty of men who had been 
trained to handle them; but bears, real grizzlies, 
were not so easily caught and handled." They were 
valued all the way from one to four thousand dol- 
lars; consequently, when a real grizzly was caught 
and caged, he was generally given an unfair advan 
tage. The bull was lassoed just before the fight, 
his horns sawed off, and the fight pretty well taken 
out of him before he was turned into the ring. On 
one occasion, the miners, and other spectators, got 
rampant over the way in which a steer was sac- 
rificed, " without any fight at all worth speaking of." 
Unfortunately, for the exhibitors, the bull-pen close 
by had several fierce, untamed, and undaunted 
steers, any one of which felt amply able to avenge 
their slaughtered companion. One of them espe- 
cially attracted the notice of the spectators. He 
would have filled the old Mosaic requirements, being 
perfect in all his parts. Lithe as a cat, his horns 
long and slender, he commenced bounding around 
his limited arena as soon as he heard the bellowino-s 
of his less able companero, that was being chawed and 
clawed in the hug of the grizzlj'. 

The vaqueros were ordered to turn the anxious 
steer into the pen, a hundred revolvers being drawn 
to enforce the request. The proprietors knew that 
business was on hand, unless the request was acceded 
to, as the grizzly was sure to be shot, and, perhaps, 
some of their own number, too. There was no alter- 
native, and they turned the anxious fellow in, though 



they expected the bear would be slain in a short 
time. The bull came in, proud and defiant, gave a 
snort of contempt, whirled his tail high in the air, 
lowered his head, and made a charge. His majesty 
seemed not to be aware of any unusual company, 
and looked as placid and serene as though he had 
just made an ample dinner of young and tender pig, 
and was going to take his daily afternoon nap. He 
received the bull with his usual affectionate hug, 
the bull's horns passing each side of his body. He 
caught the bull by the back of the neck with his 
mouth, and with the aid of his forepaws, held him 
firmly to his bosom, using his hind feet with terri- 
ble effect on the bulls neck and sides. One ear was 
stiTpped off in a twinkling. Every dig of those 
terrible claws left gaping wounds, while the bull 
seemed utterly powerless to inflict any damage on 
the bear. About five minutes of this kind of one- 
sided fighting, served to convince the bull that he 
was not so invincible after all. His bellowings of 
defiance changed to notes of rage, and then to 
terror, and finally to cries for mercy; the last howls 
being so loud as to be heard a mile away. After 
punishing the bull for a while, the bear, entertaining 
no malice, magnanimously let the bull loose, which, 
blinded by blood and rage, made a charge at the 
picket-fence, which separated him from the specta- 
tors, and went through it, scattering the crowd in 
every direction, like a whirlwind. A dozen vaqueros 
mounted their horses and started after him. Down 
through the town went the bull, charging with his 
bloody head at every gathering of men, until he got 
to the clothing stores, kept by the Jews. The bright 
red shirts attracting his attention, he demolished 
these places one after another, monarch of all around, 
until the vaqueros succeeded in getting their lariats 
around his horns and legs, curbing the further 
exhibition of his varying moods of temper. It is 
unnecessary to say that the several acts of the exhi- 
bition were highly satisfactory to the crowd, the 
general verdict being, " That thar bar's some, yon 
bet." 

It was not always the case that the bear whipped 
the bull. In early days, a bear and bull fight was 
advertised to come off at Coloma. No Spanish bulls 
being at hand, a lazy, good-natured old fellow, that 
crossed the plains some years previously, and had 
since lounged around the streets at will, was selected 
to fight the bear, much to the disgust of the assem- 
bled multitude. The fight was very short, the bull 
killing the bear in two or three minutes, by goring 
him through. In this instance, as in the one before 
related, the victory was won by the cool and wary, 
the victorious bull retiring from the contest, seem- 
ingly unconscious of any unusual event. 



72 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



OH APT. Kit XVII. 

DOMESTIC HABITS OF THE MINERS. 

Exaggerated Accounts of Bret Harte and Joaquin Miller — Cook- 
ing and Washing — J lawks, Squirrels, Quails, and Other 
Game for Food — (Jetting Supper Under Difficulties — 
Laundry Affairs — Prevalence of Vermin — The Sanguinary 
Flea — Miners' Flea Trap — Fleas versus Bed-bugs — Rats and 
Other Animals — Visits of Snakes — A Romantic Affair 
Spoiled by a Skunk. 

Foit the satisfaction of curious women who wish 
to know how their fathers and brothers man- 
aged housekeeping, we have added this chapter. 
Men who never tried pioneer life, and have no pros- 
pect or necessity of trying it, may omit reading this 
altogether, or forever hold their peace. Many exag- 
gerated stories are in circulation concerning the 
habits and characters of our early settlers. Bret 
Harte, Joaquin Miller, and a score of other writers, 
have taken some odd sample of humanity, added 
some impossible qualities, and set him up to be 
laughed at, or perhaps admired; when the fact is, the 
caricature is about as near the original as the Indian 
maiden of romance is to the filthy squaw that would 
eat the raw entrails of a horse or bullock without 
adding anything to the dirt, that already ornamented 
her hands and face. The '49er is represented as hav- 
ing pounds of dust loose in his pockets, which he 
passed out by the handful for whisky or whatever 
struck his fancy; as carrying an arsenal of knives 
and revolvers which he was wont to use on the 
slightest provocation — " rough but generous, brave, 
and kind." While it is true that an ideal '49er occa- 
sionally made an appearance in those days — for it is 
almost impossible to draw a monster, physical, 
moral, or intellectual, that has not some familiar 
features — the fact is, that the mass of the people had 
no resemblance to the ideals of Bret Harte or Joaquin 
Miller. They were sober, industrious, and energetic 
men, who toiled as men with ambition and strength 
can toil. The labor these men performed in dam- 
ming and turning rivers, or tunneling mountains, 
was not the spurt of enthusiasm born of whisky. 
Many of the men had families at home whose letters 
were looked for with the most eager interest. The 
younger men, who had not families, had ties perhaps 
equally as strong. The exceptions, which have 
given such a false character to the '49cr, were unprin- 
cipled adventurers from every State and nation, gam- 
blers in bad repute, even among their own kind, 
frontiersmen who acknowledged no law, and fugi- 
tives from justice everywhere. This was the class 
that made a vigilance committee necessary in San 
Francisco in 1850 and 1856; which occasionally 
aroused the wrath of the mass of miners by robbing 
or killing a peaceable citizen. The description of 
this class is not the object of this chapter; thev 
have already, in the hundred books which have 
been written of them, had more notice than they 
deserved. The substantial, honorable, and indus- 
trious must now claim our attention. 



When the luck-}- prospector had found a paying 
claim, the next thing was to set up his household. 
From two to four was the usual number of the mess. 
The Summers were long and dry, and there was no 
discomfort in sleeping out of doors. But even in 
Summer a house, though humble it might be, had 
many advantages over a tent for comfort and secu- 
rity. A stray horse or ox would sometimes get into 
the flour-sack or bread-sack, upset the sugar, or 
make a mess of the table-ware. Wandering Indians 
would pilfer small things, or take away clothing 
which might be left within reach; but in a cabin 
things were tolerably secure from depredation. A 
site for a cabin was selected where wood and water 
were abundant. These things, as well as the pres- 
ence of gold, often determined the location of a 
future town. Bottle Spring (Jackson), Double 
Springs, Mud Springs, Diamond Springs, and Cold 
Springs, at once suggest their origin. In the earlier 
days, log-cabins were soon put up, for suitable logs 
were found everywhere. Though these cabins are 
in the dust — passed into history — there is no need 
of describing them, as the books are full of the 
" settlers' log cabin," and no boy of the present gen- 
eration, who has arrived to the age of ten, would 
need instruction in building one. 

In the western settlements a floor made of hewn 
timbers (puncheons) was usual, but the ground 
served for a floor, and was considered good enough 
for a man. The sleeping places were as various as 
the minds of men. Sometimes a kind of dais, or 
elevation of two or three feet, was made on one side 
of the cabin, where the men, wrapped in their blank- 
ets, slept with their feet to the fire. Generally, 
bunks were made by putting a second log in the 
cabin at a proper elevation and distance from the 
sides, and nailing potato or gunny sacks across from 
one to the other, making in the same way a second 
tier of bunks, if necessary. Some fern leaves or 
coarse hay on these sacks, with blankets, made a 
comfortable bed. A good fire-place was necessary. 
Most of the mining was in water, necessarily involv- 
ing wet clothes. A rousing fire, especially in Winter, 
was necessary to " get dried out." Some of these fire- 
places would be six feet across, and built of granite 
or slate rocks, as each abounded. There was not 
much hewing done to make them fit. When the 
structure had been carried up four or five feet, an 
oak log was laid across as a mantle-piece, and on 
this the chimney, generally made of sticks or small 
poles plastered with mud, was built. A couple of 
rocks served for rests for the backlog and forestick. 
A shelf or two of shakes, or sometimes an open box 
in which pickles or candles had come around the 
Horn, would serve for a cupboard to keep a few tin 
plates, and cups, and two or three cans containing 
salt, pepper, and soda. A table of moderate size was 
also made of shakes, sometimes movable, but oftener 
nailed fast to the side of the house. Those who 
crossed the plains would often take the tail-gate of 





•: l: '.V:;, 



<A^e^n^ 



rh^d GrvvtMto JAjul^^. 



m i 




Residence of CHARLES GREEN, 

Plymouth, Amador C? Cal. 



J./T*. BJ&TTON H f*SY . 6 . *, 



DOMESTIC HABITS OF THE MINERS. 



73 



the wagon for this purpose. A frying-pan, coffee- 
pot, Dutch-oven, and water-bucket completed the 
list of household utensils. As the miners became 
prosperous, a soup-kettle for boiling potatoes, and 
also for heating water to wash their clothes on a 
Sunday was added. Somewhere in a corner was a 
roll of paper, with pen and ink, with which to cor- 
respond with the folks at home. Cooking was some- 
times done turn-about for a week, and sometimes 
seemed to fall to the lot of the best-hatured one of 
the crowd, the others bringing wood and water by 
way of offset. Not much attempt was made at 
neatness, and oftentimes one had to console himself 
with eating only his own dirt, for there were camps 
where the dishes were not washed for months. 
Sometimes a little hot coffee turned on a plate would 
take off the last-formed dirt; but washing dishes — 
the everlasting bane of woman's housekeeping — was, 
if possible, more repugnant to man, and vra.% frequently 
omitted; it made the gold-pan greasy (the miner's 
prospecting-pan served for washing dishes as well as 
gold, also as a bread-pan, and wash-tub on Sunday); 
there was no time to stop after breakfast, and they 
worked so late that they could not delay sujrper for 
the dishes to be washed, and so they were left from 
day to day. The cooking was a simple matter, 
boiling potatoes, making coffee, frying slap-jacks and 
meat, being the usual routine. Bread? — yes, I am 
going to tell you about that. All sorts of bread but 
good bread, were made at first. The miners knew 
that their wives and mothers put in soda, so they 
put in soda. Some of them brought dried yeast 
across the plains, and undertook to make raised 
bread, but as a general thing miners' bread, was but 
sorry, sad stuff. The most successful plan was to 
keep a can of sour batter (flour and water mixed),, 
with which to mix the bread, neutralizing the excess 
of acid with soda. Some of the miners became quite 
expert with this, judging to a nicety the exact 
amount of soda required. Dough mixed in this way 
and set in the sun, would soon raise, and, if the soda 
was rightly proportioned, was palatable and whole- 
some. The sour batter was splendid for slap-jacks! 
The old story that a California miner could toss his 
slap-jack up a chimney, run out doors, and catch it 
as it came down, right side up, is too old to be re-' 
peated; but it is a fact that they would turn the slap- 
jacks with a dexterous flip flop of the frying-pan, 
though when the batter was made stiff enough to 
stand this kind of usage, the cake would answer for 
half-soling a boot. The better way was to have two 
frying-pans, and turn the cakes by gently upsetting 
the contents of one into the other. Thirty years' 
experience and observation suggest no improvement 
on this method. 

Practice made many of the miners expert cooks. 
New methods of cooking were sought out, and new 
dishes invented. Think of using a dry-goods box 
for an oven, and baking a pig or shoulder of pork 
in it! No trick at all. Drive down a stake or two, 
10 



and on them make a small scaffold, on which to 
place your roast; now build a very small fire of 
hard wood, at such a distance away that a moderate 
sized dry-goods box will cover it all, and your 
arrangements are complete. The fire will need re- 
plenishing once or twice, and in two or three hours, 
according to the size of the roast, you may take it 
out, done in a rich gold color, with a flavor unat- 
tainable by any other method. Steaks were roasted 
before a fire, or smothered, when sufficiently fried 
by the ordinary process, in a stiff batter, and the 
whole baked like a batch of biscuit, making a kind 
of meat pie. Game sometimes entered into the 
miner's bill of fare. Quails, rabbits, hares, coons, 
squirrels, and hawks, were all converted into food, 
as well as deer and bear. Some Frenchmen in 1852, 
during a time of scarcity, killed and eat a coyote, 
but their account of his good qualities was not such 
as to induce others to try the experiment. In 1851, 
some miners getting out of both money and meat, 
shot a young and fine-looking hawk. He was fat, 
and, the flesh looking toothsome, they cooked him, 
and reported that "he was better nor a chicken." 
Some neighbors tried the same experiment, but, 
unfortunately,' killed the old fellow that was pre- 
served from drowning a great many years ago, 
thi'ough the kindness of one of our forefathers. His 
flesh was about the color and consistency of sole- 
leather, and after boiling him for three days in the 
vain attempt to reduce his body to an eatable con- 
dition, he was cast away. Even the rice with which 
he was boiled acquired no hawk flavor, which 
induced one of the miners to remark, "They's much 
difference 'n hawks as 'n women" A second trial re- 
sulted in a splendid dish, and after that hawks 
learned to avoid that settlement. On Christmas- 
day, 1852, a company of miners got up a big dinner. 
They put a fine large hawk in the center of a Dutch- 
oven, about twenty quails around it, and around 
them, potatoes. Some slices of salt pork on the 
hawk and quails, seasoned the birds, and tempered 
the upper heat of the oven. The hawk was pro- 
nounced the best of all. The Winter, of 1852-53, was 
perhaps the roughest time ever seen in California. 
The long spell of high water utterly prevented the 
transportation of provisions from the cities, and 
there was much want, though no actual cases of 
starvation. Many men lived for weeks on boiled 
barley. Beans, without even a ham-bone to season 
them, furnished, in some cases, the only food for 
weeks. At one camp, a pork rind was borrowed 
from one house to another, to grease the frying-pan 
for slap-jacks. 

A narrative of personal experience of one who 
lived on the south branch of Dry creek, in 1852, will 
o-ive an idea of the troubles of that year: — 

"It had been raining for about six weeks, and our 
claini had been four feet under water for a month. 
There were no gulches there that would pay, and we 
had been waiting for the rain to cease until every bit 



74 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



of provision of any description was gone, as well as 
money or dust. Something had to be done, even if 
the rain was coming down in torrents. There were 
tour of us, one Yankee, two young married nun 
from Illinois, and a man who had served in the 
United States army in the Seminole war, and. also 
as a volunteer in the Mexican war. We shouldered 
our pick, shovel, and roeker, and started up towards 
Indian gulch. Alter going a short distance, one of 
the Illinoisians got to thinking of his young wife, and 
the pleasures of home, compared with this country, 
and, overcome by his feelings, burst into a blubber 
of despair, and started on the run for the cabin, 
where he was found at night hovering over the cold 
ashes of the tire-place, the tire totally extinguished 
by his floods of tears. 

:< At the head of Indian gulch we found some pay- 
ing dirt. We went to work, and by dint of ground 
sluicing, rocking and panning, about four o'clock we 
had, probably, an ounce of dust. With this I started 
to Fiddletown to buy a supper for the boys. An 
ounce of gold dust, in 1881, will buy almost a year's 
provisions for a man, but in 1852 (flour at one hun- 
dred dollars per barrel, and meat seventy-five cents 
per pound), it was not much. After standing and 
aheming awhile, I remarked that I thought the rain 
would hold up shortly, so that provisions would get 
cheaper; believed that I would buy but a small 
quantity to-night, etc. Mr. Wingo, the gentlemanly 
trader, did not seem to notice my embarrassment, 
but politely sold me the little dab of flour and a 
piece of meat, which went down into the corner of 
the sack out of sight. I started for the cabin, dark- 
ness coming rapidly on, and the rain still falling. 
The creeks were now nearly waist deep, but I safely 
got through them all until I got to Dry creek. The 
log on which I crossed in the morning was gone, 
and the water was running high over the banks. 
Two or three hundred yards away was the cabin, 
and I knew, by the bright light shining through the 
cracks of the door, that a big fire had been built to 
cook our suppers, out of the proceeds of our day's 
work, and to dry our clothes, soaked by twelve 
hours' rain. A council of war was called, and all 
attainable information regarding roads, bridges, and 
ferries, called for. The creek was nowhere fordable; 
that proposition was disposed of without delay. 
One witness, or member of the council, had an 
indistinct recollection of having seen a tree across 
the creek a mile or two below, some days since, but 
could not vouch for its being there at present. This 
being the only information attainable, the com- 
mander ordered a change of base, to the possible 
bridge. Down the creek, in utter darkness, over 
rocks and bushes, stumbling and falling, and after 
an hour's hard work, the bridge was found. It was 
a cedar tree, the butt resting on the stump, the 
large top reaching to the opposite shore, and the 
middle sagged down so that the water was running, 
perhaps, two feet deep over the trunk, and threaten- 
ing every moment to sweep the tree off its moorings; 
for, standing on its upper end, I could feel it sway- 
ing to the movement of the water. But the sub- 
merged part had limbs standing up out of the stream, 
and a charge in force across the bridge was ordered, 
with this caution, 'My boy, if you go overboard, the 
boys will go without their suppers.' The opposite 
bank was gained in safety, by feeling the way and 
holding to the limbs; and, an hour later, some bread 
and fried pork, and a roaring fire, brought us to a 
comfortable condition, and gave us the spirit to 
laugh at all our troubles." 



1 \UNDRY AFFAIRS. 

Necessity compelled every man to do some kind 
of cooking. The calls of a ravenous stomach three 
or four times a day could not be disregarded with 
impunity; but the matter of having clean shirts and 
beds, though quite as necessary, was not so forcibly 
called for, and the washing was postponed from one 
Sunday to another until the traditional washing-day, 
in many camps, was well-nigh forgotten. A clean 
shirt- was hauled over a dirty one, until the accumu- 
lations of sweat and red clay would afford a study 
for a geologist. The blankets, too, were slept in for 
months, for no miner ever dreamed of having clean 
sheets, and as for pillows, his boots tucked under his 
blankets served as a support to his head. When a 
shirt was changed, the cast-off garment was laid 
aside, or left in his bunk to be washed at a more con- 
venient time — which never came. No wonder then 
that the gray-backed lice, the genuine army vermin, 
colonized every blanket and shirt. For months 
respectable men, who would as soon have been 
accused of stealing as being lousy, went scratching 
around without a suspicion of the trouble. Poison 
oak, hives, change of climate, and a hundred other 
things were supposed to produce the intolerable, 
persistent itching. When the true cause became 
known, for sooner or later the discovery was sure to 
come, the conduct of the victims became amusing. 
Some would swear, some would cast their clothing 
away, or perhaps bury it, and purchase an entire 
new outfit — but the fact was the louse had taken 
possession of the whole country; like the angel of 
the apocalypse, he had a foot on the sea and on the 
dry land; in the store as well as in the cabin. A 
vigorous war with hot water, on everything that 
would scald, would exterminate him, though some 
lazy, and consequently lousy, miners contended that 
hot water would not kill them. The louse event- 
ually abandoned the country; but whether from the 
neater habits of the miners, or the coming of the 
avenger, 

THE FIERCE SANGUINARY FLEA, 

Is still an open question. Between 1851 and '53, 
contemporaneous with the irruption of the rat, the 
flea fought his way into every camp, and held the 
fort, too, against all enemies. If unwashed shirts 
and blankets were favorable to the existence of 
myriads of gray-backs, not less so was the swarming 
lice for the flea, for he made meat and drink of them. 
Hot water had no terrors for the flea; he was out 
and off before a garment would go into the water. 
During the day he made his homo in the dust floor 
of the cabin, and at night sallied out of his lair, 
thirsting for blood. And he must be a good sleeper 
indeed, who could close his eyes in slumber, while 
hundreds of lancets wcro puncturing his cuticle. 
Sometimes a cabin was abandoned on account of 
them. A person happening to come in would have 
hundreds crawling on his pants in a few minutes. 



DOMESTIC HABITS OF THE MINERS. 



75 



Sometimes a man would leave his cabin and blankets 
and sleep on the naked ground on the outside to get 
rid of his persistent bed-fellows. 

THE MINERS' FLEA-TRAP. 

If necessity is the mother of invention, the flea- 
trap was a sure corollary. It was a simple and 
effective affair. It was known that fleas would 
gather around a light; taking advantage of this 
habit, the miners would set a lighted candle on the 
floor, and around it set their pans with a small 
quantity of slippery soap-suds in each. The flea 
would fall in, struggle vigorously for awhile to get 
out, and finally drown. A tablespoonful of the 
rascals in the morning was considered a satisfactory 
catch. Later the bed-bugs drove out, to some 
extent, the flea, and still hold the land. The good 
housewife is often reduced to despair by the per- 
sistence of these unwelcome tenants of her rooms, 
who neither pay rent nor vacate. 

The following article, from the Oakland Times, is 
commended to the attention of housekeepers who 
are still in the thick of the doubtful and unequal 
contest : — 

" Stockton is celebrated for its mosquitoes, Sacra- 
mento for its bed-bugs, San Francisco for its rats, 
and Oakland for its fleas. They are larger and there 
are more of them; they can jump further and higher, 
bite often er and deeper, than any fleas in the world. 
They are more persistent than a book agent, and 
hold with a tighter grip than a money-lender. They 
swarm everywhere — in the streets, the stores, and 
the public places. Everybody 'has em bad.' The 
young and the old, the tender and the tough, alike 
are meat for them.. If you wish to say a compli- 
mentary thing to a lady, ten to one a flea will bite 
you where it is impossible to scratch, while, likely, 
the lady, troubled m the same way, will manifest 
impatience. Do not misjudge her, or be discouraged. 

" You may fancy that your neighbor in the cars has 
the itch; no such thing; only the irrepressible flea. 
Flea-catching is one of the accomplishments of our 
belles. They never disrobe without taking a hunt, 
and boast of the numbers they slay. Even the 
sanctuary is invaded by them; in fact, the church flea 
is the most ravenous of all. Starved during the 
week, he has an extraordinary appetite when the 
Sabbath comes. No bells calling a laboring man to 
his dinner ever brought such joy as the Sunday 
chimes do to the fasting flea. How he rushes to the 
attack as the people take their seats! How the vic- 
tims writhe and squirm as the flea plunges his jaws 
into them! Preachers unaccustomed to the phenom- 
enon, imagine it to be the sword of the spirit bring- 
ing sinners to a lively sense of their condition, and 
they lay on and spare not. Fieas, reverend sir; 
nothing more. 

" Those who have studied phlebotomy think they 
can distinguish the bites of the different denomina- 
tions. There is the flea of the gushing Methodist, 
that is gentle and affectionate; of the iron-bound 
Presbyterian, that bounces you like a bull-dog ; but 
for downright, hard work, take the flea of the hard- 
shell Baptist. liaised amidst difficulties, like the 
Scotchman among his crags,«and the New Englander 
among the granite boulders, he is fitted for every 
possible emergency in a race for life. None but the 



hardiest survive, which proves Darwin's theory of 
the survival of the fittest. 

" The fleas are not without their benefits, however. 
Half of the success of our business men is supposed 
to be due to the irritation of the fleas, who never let 
them rest, day nor night. And then— now housekeeper 
listen — no bed-bugs can live where such a race of 
fleas has taken the land. To use the words of a 
noted housekeeper, "the fleas eat 'em up." Not a 
bed-bug is known in all Oakland. What a blessing 
these fleas would be in our interior towns, whore the 
bed-bugs have had possession for a quarter of a 
century. How the sangrados would riot in blood ! 
What consternation among the respectable, alder- 
manic old bugs, as the bloodthirsty flea, his jaws 
reeking with gore, dashed in among them ! The 
irruption of the hordes of Alaric into Pome, or the 
contemplated raid of Kearney's hoodlums into China- 
town, could not compare with it. 

"If our country neighbors want some of these fleas, 
I think the Oakianders would be willing to sjjare 
them. Though usually anxious to drive a good bar- 
gain, in the sale of fleas they would be generous. 
They will help you catch them. Y"ou have only to 
sleep a night or two in the churches, and you will 
have enough. Negotiations may be opened with our 
Mayor or any of the city officers." 

RATS AND OTHER VERMIN. 

Eats have been mentioned as coming in with the 
fleas. The mild climate, exposed condition of eat- 
ables, and absence of cats and dogs, the natural 
enemies of rats, caused them to multiply with extraor- 
dinary rapidity. They were as much at home in 
the country as in the town, and a miner, camping in 
the hills away from the town, soon received visits 
from the rats, who thenceforth managed to have a 
share of all he brought into his camp. After he 
had retired to his blankets, the rats in troops would 
run over his body, making it the jumping-off plaee 
in their playful gambols. They left their tracks on 
his butter, gnawed holes into his flour-sack, danced 
cotillions on his table, and kicked up a fuss generally. 
Nothing but boxes of tin or heavy lumber would 
keep them from eating, destroying, or dirtying every 
article of food around the cabin. It will be borne 
in mind that the houses or cabins were made of logs 
daubed with mud, without floors or windows, and 
were accessible to all kinds of vermin, as well as 
rats. Pattlesnakes sometimes crawled into the 
interstices of the logs, and first made their presence 
known by the sharp rattle or perhaps the deadly 
thrust of their poisonous fangs into the sleeper's 
limbs. A young man living on the Slate-creek side 
of American hill, near Oleta, was bitten in this way 
without any warning on the part of the snake. He 
felt the sting, felt the deadly paralysis coming over 
him, and, in company with two or three companions, 
started for town, but sunk helplessly to the ground 
before getting there, dying shortly after. The fol- 
lowing morning an examination of the bed revealed 
the presence of a young and vigorous rattlesnake, 
three feet or more in length. A Frenchman in the 
vicinity, was bitten about the same way, though he 
was living alone and was unable to reach the town, 



70 



HISTORY OF AMADOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



perishing on the way, being found in the trail some 
days afterwards without any visible wound. A 
rattlesnake, dead on the floor of his cabin, indicated 
the cause of his death. The long, yellow chicken 
snake would sometimes crawl into the cabin and 
create consternation among the rats and lizards, as 
well as among the miners. As the miners got to 
building their cabins of sawed lumber and elevating 
them above the ground, snakes, rats, mice, and 
skunks, became less frequent visitors. When dogs 
and cats were called in as friends and protectors, 
men, and women as well, could sleep without fear of 
disturbance. Since skunks have been mentioned, 
the reader may feel an interest in the adventures of 
a young and romantic miner with an animal of tbis 
kind, which, possibly, exerted a great influence in 
shaping his destiny: — 

"I had been mining on the South fork, in the 
Summer of '52, and came down to Dry creek in the 
Fall, a little the worst-busted individual you ever 
saw. Save some old, worn-out shovels and picks, I 
had nothing, not even a decent pair of pants. About 
that time two or three families had settled on Dead 
Man's creek, a little above my camp. I had seen a 
slender, willowy form flitting in and out of a cabin, 
and all the powers of my imagination were sum- 
moned to describe her charms. ' Young and fair 
with bright golden hair,' was not then written, but 
I thought it though, as well as many other fine 
things, and spent some days in composing compli- 
ments to her musical ability, sweet voice, beautiful 
eyes, mouth, teeth, feet, ' and all that sort of thing.' 
I worked like a Trojan 'panning-out,' to get money 
enough to buy raiment fit to appear in her presence. 
At length, one Saturday evening, the task was per- 
formed, and I hung the suit up by my bed and 
slept — fondly dreaming — etc. I was awakened in 
the night by a scratching on the logs above my 
head, which I supposed was by the rats. Now, they 
had annoyed me so often in that way, that I had lost 
all patience with them, and resolved to 'fix 'em.' 
A gun was standing by my side, and I proceeded to 
gently draw out a ramrod, with which to kill some 
of them, for, from the scratching I concluded there 
must be a dozen or two, at least. I succeeded in 
getting the rod out without alarming my visiters, 
and suddenly whipping it into the corner over my 
head, did my best to kill the whole of them. There 
were three other persons sleeping in the cabin. 
Hearing the racket, they all roused up with: 
' Whe — w!!' 'What in H — l!!' ' Oh. Je — rusa- 
lem! ! ' We all leaped into the middle of the floor, 
and, hastily stirring the coals in the fire-place, raised 
light enough to see our friend crawling out of a hole 
in the unfinished gable of the cabin, lie did not 
take the atmosphere with him. Clothing, blankets, 
provisions, boots and shoes, and even the very logs 
of the cabin, were saturated with the essence of all 
that is villainous. Months afterwards when the 
scent had become so diffused that we could no 
longer perceive it, I made a visit to Fiddletown 
(Oleta). There was a ball going on, and I stepped 
into the ball-room to get a glimpse, once more, of 
a woman's face. Several persons made the remark 
that somebody must have killed a skunk. I did not 
tell them that the skunk was not killed, but quietly 
retired. Somebody else got that girl." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
ORGANIZATION OF AMADOR COUNTY. 

Election for or Against Division, June 17, 1854 — Proceedings 
of the Board of Commissioners — Strife for the Possession of 
the Comity Scat — The Owl — Sketches of the First Candi- 
dates — Courts Established — Efforts to Suppress Disorderly 
Houses- — Amusing Procession — Election in 1854 — Condition 
of Society. 

Jackson and Mokelumne Hill had been rival 
towns. When Calaveras county was organized, 
Double Springs became the county seat; for a short 
time only, however, for it was captured by a coup de 
nuila, and transferred to Jackson, where it remained 
for nearly two years. From that place it was trans- 
ferred to Mokelumne Hill, as the result of a choice, 
by election, of the people, called in accordance with 
an Act of the Legislature of 1851-2, the particulars 
of which will be set forth more particularly in the 
township histories. The politicians never rested 
contentedly under this change. Tbey asserted that 
men on the south side of the Mokelumne river got 
the offices, and they went to work to convince the 
people that their interests would be better served by 
having a new county organized. By this time 
(1853) there were several ambitious towns that were 
willing to take charge of the county seat and fur- 
nish grub and whisk//, particularly the latter, to all 
who were rich enough to indulge in the luxury of 
going to law. It was also urged, with too much 
reason to be disputed, that the taxes were being 
wasted at Mokelumne Hill; that no money was 
paid into the State Treasury, more that the officers 
wasted the county funds on loose women. It was 
asserted that whenever you wished to see an official on 
business, you must look for him in one of the half- 
dozen dance-houses that ornamented and conserved 
the morals of that high-toned town. 

In 1853-1 the Legislature passed an Act calling 
for the vote of the people in regard to a division, 
fixing the 17th of June following as the day. and 
appointing W. L. McKimm, B. W. Gemmill, A. G. 
Sneath, Alexander Boileau, and Alonzo Piatt as 
Commissioners, to organize the new county in case 
the people voted for a division. The bill was drawn 
by E. D. Sawyer, one of the Senators from Cala- 
veras, Charles Leake being the other Senator. The 
name originally given in the bill for the new county 
was Washington, but the name Amador was substi- 
tuted in the Assembly, and concurred in by the Sen- 
ate. The bill was read three times, and passed the 
same day — the motive for this hurry being expected 
opposition. A delegation from Mokelumne Hill had 
arrived to oppose the measure, but they had been 
wined until all ideas of county seats were obliterated: 
so a bill was hurried through before the drunk was off, 
lest convincing ai-guments should be urged against it 
when they returned to their senses. 

The pi-ospect of having a county seat enlisted 
a great many in the matter who otherwise would 
have been utterly indifferent. lone was beginning 




C. WELLER. 



M"s C. WELLER. 




RESIDENCE •* CONRAD WELLER, 

JACKSOM, AMADOR COUNTY^ CAL. 



LlTH BRIT70N &REY,S. F. 



ORGANIZATION OF AMADOR COUNTY. 



77 



to flourish on the sale of water-melons, vegetables, 
hay, and barley, to the miners; had plenty of level 
ground on which to build a town, and had no diffi- 
culty in proving that it was the proper place for dis- 
pensing justice and the disbursement of the peo- 
ples' money. Sutter Creek was growing from the 
development of the quartz mining, which was likely 
to be permanent. It claimed to be the town par 
excellence, having a high-toned, moral people, where 
no dance-houses or kindred institutions, were likely 
to demoralize the public officers, as at Mokelumne Hill; 
The latter reason was a sly thrust at Jackson, which 
had early supported several of these resorts. There 
was also a good place for a picturesque town, the hills 
closing together around the place like an amphithea- 
ter. Volcano — well — it could not urge many rea- 
sons except that it wanted the benefit of a county 
seat. It was true that it was on the outside of the 
county to be created, or any possible county for that 
matter; it was down in a deep hole where people 
had to be hoisted up to get out; the roads beyond 
Volcano went to no'placebut the deep caves, or some 
place still deeper; the town was hot in the Summer, 
and muddy in the Winter, but it was growing rap- 
idly, had jjlenty of men to vote, and might get the 
county seat any way. So Volcano became interested. 
Jackson had been the county seat, and had had a 
taste of the profits and pleasures. It had the old 
jail; that might be repaired and used again, and had 
many reasons to urge for a new organization. Every 
town, too, had a set of candidates for the offices — 
men who were willing to sacrifice their own business 
for the public good. 

On the south side of the river some towns con- 
ceived the idea that in case the county was divided, 
the seat of justice might be moved from Mokelumne 
Hill, so the interest in favor of division became 
general. 

On the day appointed the election came off, result- 
ing in a majority, though a small one, for the division. 
But Mokelumne Hill was not to be taken that way. 
The law required that the returns should be trans- 
mitted, sealed, to the Board of Supervisors. When 
the returns were handed in, it was found that all 
from the north side of the river were opened — had 
been tampered with ! They were consequently 
rejected. Here was a dilemma. The matter was 
investigated, and it was found that the returns from 
Mokelumne Hill had also been opened, though after- 
wards sealed again. Several persons, among whom 
was J. T. Farley, had seen the returns from Mokelumne 
Hill, and knew that they had been opened also. The 
fact was, all of them had been opened as soon as they 
were received, and the party in power had resolved 
to take advantage of their own mistakes. A deputy 
Clerk was induced to make out the certificates of the 
election, and the Board of Commissioners resolved to 
organize the county notwithstanding the decision of 
the officers. The proceedings are copied in full from 
a small book, the first of the records of Amador 



county. The phraseology and quaint style have been 
preseiwed, believing that the original form will be 
most interesting. Tucker's ranch mentioned, has 
since been knoAvn as the T Garden, and was situated 
at the junction of the Sutter Creek, lone, Jackson, 
and Volcano roads, and was selected both for con- 
venience and because it was not likely to give 
umbrage to any of the aspiring towns. 

" Be it remembered that on the third day of July, 
in the year of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred 
and fifty-four, the Board of Commissioners appointed 
under an Act granting to the electors of Calaveras 
county the privilege to vote for or against a division 
of said county, and to organize the county of Amador — 
Approved May the Eleventh A. D. 1854. Met at the 
house of Martin Tucker in said county of Amador 
present William L. McKimm, E. W. Gemill, A. G. 
Sneath, Alexander Boileau and Alonzo Piatt; And on 
motion of Alonzo Piatt seconded by E. W. Gemill 
William L. McKimm was chosen President of the 
Board. And on motion of Alexander Boileau, Alonzo 
Piatt was chosen Secretary of the Board: 

" The President then called for the reading of the 
Law appointing the Board of Commissioners and 
defining their duties and the same was read by the 
Secretary; and having been cpnsidered by the Board, 
it was on motion resolved by the Board to proceed 
to establish Election Precincts in and for the county 
of Amador. 

"And thereupon the Board having considered the 
matter and being fully advised in the premises 
directed the Secretary to enter the following Order 
on the Record: 

" Ordered, By the Board of Commissioners that 
there shall be twenty-one Election Precincts in the 
county of Amador and that they shall be known and 
designated as follows, to- wit: Dry Town, Upper 
Rancheria; New York Ranch, Grass Valley, Ranch- 
eria, Amador, Lancha Plana, Gales Ranch, Butte City, 
Russell's, Volcano, Jackson, Plattsburgh, Fort John, 
Streeter's Ranch, Q Ranch, lone City, Clinton, Sutter, 
Armstrong's Mill, White's Bar. 

"And on motion the Board proceeded to consider 
the matter of the application for an Election Precinct 
at ' Whale Boat Ferry,' on the Moquelumnie River : 
and proof being introduced and heard, it appearing 
to the satisfaction of the Board that ' Whale Boat 
Ferry ' was not two miles from Butte City, another 
election precinct ; It was by the Board 

" Ordered, That the application for an Election Pre- 
cinct at ' Whale Boat Ferry' be not allowed, and the 
Board then' proceeded to consider the matter of the 
appointment of Inspectors and Judges of Election in 
the several Election Precincts established by them; 
it was 

" Ordered, That In Dry Town Precinct Chas. W. 
Fox be appointed Inspector, and J. T. King and J. 
D. Cross Judges of Elections. 

" Upper Rancheria — Samuel Loree, Inspector; Dr. 
Cartmill and Mr. Votaw, Judges. 

"New York Ranch — S. Spears, Inspector; John 
Elkins, John Decks, Judges. 

" Grass Valley — Abner P. Clough, Inspector; J. 
O'Neal, G. Shoemaker, Judges. 

" Rancheria — Wm. Snediker, Inspector ; S. Neese, 
Andrew Onstott, Judges. 

" Amador — J. M. Scott, Inspector; M. M. Glover, 
G. W. Taylor, Judges. 

" Lancha Plana — J. W. D. Palmer, Inspector; J. 
Bullard, G. Wagner, Judges. 



78 



BISTORY OF AMADoi: COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



"Gall's Ranch — E.J. Martin, Inspector; William 
Moon, J. Albortson, Judges. 

"Butte City — John Reno, [nspector; J. Northup, 
William Young, Judges. 

"Russell's — William Foster, [nspector; Harrison 
Freals, 1). Robinson, Judges. 

"Volcano — C. IS. Woodruff, Inspector; J. K. Payne, 
M. K. Boucher, Judges. 

"Q Ranch — L. C. Patch, Inspector; A. R. Phillips. 
A. K. Sexton, Judges. 

"lone City — Robert Reed, Inspector; T. Rickey, 
J. E. Hunt, Judges. 

"Clinton — F. M. MeKenzie, Inspector; Thomas 
Loehr, S. L. Robinson, Judges. 

"Sutter — William Loring, Inspector; Herbert 
Bowers, N. Harding, Judges. 

"Jackson — T. Hinkley, Inspector; E. C. Webster. 
Ellis Evans, Judges. 

"Plattsburgh — J. A. Dunn, Inspector; F. B. Case, 
A. S. Richardson, Judges. 

" Port John— P. Vaughn, Inspector; L. Sehon, — 
Gilbert, Judges. 

" Streeter's Ranch — Win. Porter, Inspector; Thos. 
Jones, Wm. Amick, Judges. 

"Armstrong's Mill — John Howlett, Inspector; J. 
McDonough, Goff Moore, Judges. 

" White's Bar — J. E. Weeks, Inspector; James 
Gregg, , Judges. 

"And the Board then proceeded to consider the 
form of the proclamation ordering an election on the 
seventeenth day of July instant, for county officers 
and the location of the seat of justice of the county 
of Amador, and it was 

"Ordered, That the Secretary propose a form and 
submit the same to the Board for their considera- 
tion. 

" The Secretary submitted to the Board a form for 
an election notice with an appendix of instructions, 
and the Board having considered the same, it was 

" Ordered, By the Board that the following form of 
an " Election Notice" for the county of Amador be 
adopted, and that the President of this Board be 
authorized and instructed to procure the same to 
be printed together with the appendix of instructions, 
and that he be further authorized to name one or 
more executive officers, and appoint them to post (in 
pursuance of the law) in the several election pre- 
cincts in this county at least ten days before said elec- 
tion the said election notice, to-wit: 

" Election Notice Amador county. — The under- 
signed, a Board of Commissioners appointed to or- 
ganize the county of Amador under the authority 
and by virtue of ' An Act granting to the electors of 
Calaveras county the privilege to vote for or against 
a division of said county, and to organize the county,' 
Approved May 11th, A. D. 1854, do hereby order 
an election to be held by the qualified electors at the 
several precincts, hereinafter named, on Monday the 
seventeenth day of July instant, for the election of 
the following officers, to-wit: One County Judge, 
one County Clerk, one District Attorney, one Sheriff, 
one Assessor, one Treasurer, one Coroner, and one 
Public Administrator; and do hereby, under said law, 
appoint the persons whose names are placed opposite 
to each said precinct. And we do further order under 
said law, that on said day and at each of said pre- 
cincts, the qualified electors do also vote for a place 
for the location of the seat of justice of said county 
of Amador. The election precincts are established 
and the inspectors and judges of election appointed 
as follows: 



[Here follows a li-t of the officers of the election, 
already mentioned on a former page.] 

•■ Given under our hands and seals at Tucker's 
ranch, in the county of Amador, on Monday, the 
third day of July, A. D. 1854. 

(Signed) W. L. MoKimm, 

B. W. G EM MILL, 

A. G. Sneatii, 
A. Boileau, 
Alonzo Platt. 

"Appendix of Instructions: Inspectors, judges and 
clerks of election should be sworn by a Justice if one 
is present; if not, the Inspector will swear the judges 
and clerks, and one of the judges then swear the 
Inspector. 

" The returns should be securely sealed with wax 
wafer or paste, so that the envelope cannot be 
removed. 

" The returns may be made to either one of the 
Board of Commissioners, but with all the require- 
ments of the law in the revised statutes in relation to 
sending, forwarding or delivering election returns to 
the County Clerk with the exception of returning to 
one of the Board; the returns must by the law, organ- 
izing the County of Amador, be made within five 
days. 

" The votes for county officers and seat of justice 
are to be on one ballot. 

"If the inspectors and judges are not present to 
conduct the election the voters will appoint them. 

Wm. L. McKimm, 
President of the Board of Commissioners. 

Alonzo Platt, Secretary. 

"It was 

" Ordered, That the President be authorized and 
required to notify the inspectors and judges of their 
appointments. It was 

" Ordered, That when this Board adjourn it ad- 
journ to meet at Jackson, in the County of Amador, 
on Saturday, the twenty-second clay of July, A. D. 
1854, to canvass the votes and proceed to a final dis- 
charge of their duties as Commissioners. 

" There being no further business before the Board 
the motion to adjourn having been made and sec- 
onded, it was ordered that the Board of Commission- 
ers now adjourn. 

(Signed) TV. L. McKimm, 

E. W. Gemmill, 
A. G. Sneath, 
A. Boileau, 
Alonzo Platt. 

" Be it remembered that on the twenty-second day 
of July in the year of our Lord one thousand eight 
hundred and fifty -four, the Board of Commissioners 
appointed bylaw to organize the County of Amador, 
met in pursuance to their adjournment at Jackson in 
the county of Amador. 

"Present — W. L. McKimm, President of the 
Board; A. G. Sneath, E. W. Gemmill, Alexander Boi- 
leau and Alonzo Platt, Secretary. 

" The record of the last meeting of the Board was 
read and approved and signed by all the Board, and 
the Board proceeded to open the returns from the 
several precincts and draw up a statement thereof; 
and the said statement having been compared with 
said returns and read and examined was approved, 
and the President was ordered to file the said state- 
ment with the County Clerk of the County of Ama- 
dor. 

" It was then ordered that the President and Sec- 
retary forward a transcript of the same certified by 



ORGANIZATION OF AMADOR COUNTY. 



79 



them officially, to the Secretary of the State of Cali- 
fornia and to the Governor thereof. It was then 

" Ordered, That a statement of the whole number 
of votes received by each person for each office, and 
by each place for' county seat, be entered on the 
records of this Board. 

" Which statement is here entered and is as fol- 
lows, to-wit: — 

"For County Seat: Briggs Ranch, 1 vote; Upper 
Rancheria, 1; Jackson City, 2; Jackson, 1002; Sutter 
Creek, 539; lone Valley, 496; Volcano, 937; Dry- 
town, 3; lone, 2; Fort John, 1; Amador Creek, 1; 
Rancheria, 1; Amador Mills, 1. 

"For County Judge: James F. Hubbard, received 
1354 votes; M. W. Cordon, 1184. 

"For County Clerk: Chas. Boynton, received 
1447 votes; James C. Shipman, 1779. 

" For Sheriff: Wm. A. Phoenix received 1500 votes; 
James Harnett, 1410. 

" For Treasurer: James T. Farley received 1384 
votes; W. L. Mclvimm, 1522. 

" District Attorney: \V. W. JJope received 1372 
votes; S. B. Axtell, 1528. 

"Assessor: James L. Halstead received 1345 votes; 
H. A. Eichelberger, 1579. 

"Public Administrator: J. T 
votes; B. B. Harris, 1569. 



King received 1316 



"Coroner: Wm.M. Sharp received 1350 votes: G- 
L. Lyon, 1553. 

" The whole number of votes polled in said county 
was 3021." 

The following persons were declared elected — 
being the first persons elected to these offices in the 
county of Amador : — 

M. W. Gordon, Judge; William A. Phoenix, Sher- 
iff; James C. Shipman, County Clerk, W. S. Mc- 
Kimm, Treasurer; S. B. Axtell, District -Attorney; 
H. A. Eichelberger, Assessor; E. B. Harris, Public 
Administrator; G. S. Lyons, Coroner. 

The Judges, Inspectors, and Clerks, at this elec- 
tion were allowed eight dollars ])er day for services, 
many of them receiving sixteen dollars each for the 
day and night. 

It will be seen that the county seat question was 
one of the principal elements in the election, the 
results among the contestants being: For lone, 496 
votes; for Sutter Creek, 539 votes; for Volcano, 
937 votes; for Jackon, 1,002 votes. 

The following table will give an idea of the com- 
parative size of the several towns: — 



FIRST ELECTION 


HELD 


IN AMADOR COUNTY. 


JULY 17, 1854. 


LIST 


OF 


VOTES 


BY 


PRECINCTS. 




c 
o 

o 


o 




a 


a 

O 

3 


a 



1-5 


<3 

a 

a 

S 

d 

►J 




c 



3 


> 

O 


3 




M 
"a; 

O 


PS 


>< 

<U 


5 

c 



"co 

O 

1 
< 


c 



D2 

bo 

c 

'bO 

bo 
5 

1 


eS 

CU 

C 

P. 
P. 






« 

c 


u 



cS 

C 

<! 


J3 
C 


CO 


Eh 


County Seat. 










132 
G 

2 
'13 


47 
23 

"3 


33 

7 
31 
22 


5 

275 

2 

2 


675 

6 

11 

4 


28 

9 

146 

1 


19 

22 

9 

646 


11 

5 

2 
82 


9 
9 


14 
1 


2 
4 


14 
6 

228 
6 






1 
1 






4 
30 

1 


50 

3 


10 
3 

61 
1 


1,002 
539 


Sutter Creek 


7 
25 


6 


42 


27 




496 




13 


16 


35 


38 


24 


6 




937 


County Judge. 










James F. Hubbard 

M. W. Gordon 


103 

47 


18 

48 


58 
40 


164 
111 


234 
445 


41 
139 


369 
281 


54 
46 


IS 
i; 


16 

7 


29 
5 


123 
124 


6 

22 


16 

29 


IS 
4 


2S 
19 


7 
19 


9 
13 


29 
26 


30 
47 


1,354 
1,484 


County Clerk. 












































James C. Shipman 


113 
41 


35 
30 


46 
52 


36 
235 


443 
242 


55 
125 


105 

582 


10 
90 


13 

IS 


8 
19 


32 


131 
121 


6 

22 


45 


12 
11 


20 
29 


"26 


9 
21 


28 
28 


45 
31 


1,447 

1,779 


Sheriff. 












































W. A. Phoenix 

James Harnett 


119 
34 


42 
24 


30 
65 


107 
166 


408 

285 


45 
135 


372 
312 


73 
26 


19 
12 


21 

8 


32 


98 
153 


6 
24 


15 
31 


IS 
5 


29 

20 


4 

22 


.8 
22 


27 
2L 


27 
42 


1,500 
1,410 


Treasurer. 












































James T. Farley 

Wm. L. McKimm 


60 
91 


41 

27 


36 
62 


103 

172 


319 

373 


31 

148 


459 
215 


6 
94 


15 
16 


20 
9 


33 
1 


114 
140 


6 
23 


42 

9 


1G 
5 


17 

25 


"*26 


9 
21 


24 
28 


32 
45 


1,384 
1,522 


District Attorney. 












































W. W Cope 


106 
35 


40 

26 


7S 
21 


106 
170 


281 
407 


'44 
135 


364 
318 


44 

55 


14 
16 


16 
12 


32 
3 


99 
150 


5 
20 


29 
17 


IS 
5 


25 
24 


1 
25 


9 
20 


30 

25 


33 
44 


1,372 

1,528 


S. B. Axtell 


Assessor. 


James L. Halstead 


89 
61 


£0 

45 


41 
57 


103 
173 


278 
414 


42 
139 


428 
256 


50 
49 


15 
16 


17 
12 


7 
26 


118 
132 


5 
25 


15 

2S 


IS 
5 


31 

IS 


"26 


7 
26 


28 
28 


32 
44 


1,345 
1,579 


Public Administrator. 












































Jerry T. King 


83 36 
66 29 


69 

28 


101 
175 


2S2 5 
411 


' 44 
134 


346 
337 


50 
50 


15 
16 


1G 
12 


19 
16 


119 
121 


4 
24 


16 
30 


IS 
5 


26 
24 


"26 


9 
21 


28 
28 


35 

42 


1,316 


E. B. Harris 


1,569 


Coroner. 








W. M. Sharp 


86 
60 

154 


36 

29 

73 


42 
57 

99 


103 
173 

284 


319 
374 

696 


41 


351 


55 
45 

100 


15 
16 

31 


16 
12 

31 


31 
3 

41 


113 

138 

251 


5 
23 

32 


16 

29 

46 


18 
5 

26 


26 
23 

50 


26 
27 


9 
21 

35 


29 

27 

56 


39 
31 

77 


1,?50 


L. G. Lyon 


138' 323 


1,553 


Number of votes cast. 


131 


696 


2,9S9 



so 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Immediately after the determination to organize, 
the activity became remarkable. 

Sutter Creek offered to give towards county 
buildings ten thousand dollars; Jackson ten thou- 
sand dollars, and lone about six thousand dollars. 
Yolcano offered nothing, but ridiculed the offers 
of money as all bosh, that Jackson would prob- 
ably donate the old county jail, which was made of 
logs so small that a man could cut his way out in 
an hour or two with his jack-knife, and, moreover, 
the logs were so rotten that an enterprising pig 
would root his way out. Yolcano relied upon votes, 
and it is probable with a little outside exertion 
would have carried the matter for itself, as it only 
lacked sixty or seventy votes of the selection. Real 
estate in Volcano and Jackson went up with a boom. 
Town-lots were staked off everywhere, and, until 
the evening of the election, people were in a high 
financial fever. Yolcano patients soon recovered, 
but the Jackson unfortunates were afflicted for some 
years. 

It will be noticed that the candidates at this elec- 
tion were mostly men of ability. Some of them will 
have biographies in the chapter devoted to lawyers. 
Others have become lawyers since leaving the 
county. 

M. W. Gordon remained in the county, occupying 
many times stations of honor. 

James F. Hubbard was originally a surveyor; 
studied law, practiced awhile in Amador county, 
moved to San Francisco, and has drifted out of sight. 

Chas. Boynton, the brilliant editor and poet, will 
be mentioned again in connection with newspapers. 

James C. Shipman, several times elected County 
Clerk, was from Virginia — one of the genuine, old 
stock. His honor and integrity have never been 
questioned even by his political opponents— enemies 
he never had. 

W. A. Phoenix was a young man of energy, 
integrity, and ability. He was killed in the unhappy 
Kancheria affair, in which account he will be further 
mentioned. 

James Harnett was a farmer of good standing in 
lone valley. He returned to the East and has drifted 
out of sight. 

James T. Farley is our present United States Sen- 
ator, and will have further mention in the proper 
place. 

W. L. McKimm, the first Treasurer, occupied many 
positions of honor and profit; was Government Sur- 
veyor, and was employed to settle disputes in regard 
to lines, having the confidence of all parties. He 
was killed by being thrown from a buggy, while 
descending the hill south of Jackson, in company 
with the Hon. John A. Eag'en. 

W. W. Cope, now resident of San Francisco, once 
a Judge of the Supreme Court will have further 
mention. 

S. B. Axtell, since member of Congress from the 



First District, Governor of Salt Lake and New 
Mexico, will be further mentioned. 

James L. JIai.stkad farmed in the early days on 
Volcano Flat, has since been a member of the Leg- 
islature from Santa Cruz, and is now a prominent 
lawyer in that county. 

II. A. Eichelberger was a trusted citizen of Ama- 
dor county several years; went to Nevada in the 
beginning of the mining excitement, and was acci- 
dentally killed while trying to prevent a quarrel 
between two of his friends. His remains lie in the 
cemetery of lone. 

J. T. King has drifted out of sight. 

Doctor Harris acted quite a prominent part in the 
early settlement of Amador county. He was a 
successful physician as well as miner. He built and 
run for some time the Newton Hotel ; was largely 
instrumental in the organization of Amador county; 
found time to help build up the State Agricultural 
Society; mingled in politics; taught singing, and did 
many things to help build up society. He was among 
the foremost who went to the Washoe mines, put up 
a custom mill, and made thirty thousand dollars 
before other men had time to look around. When 
the civil war broke out, he joined the Union army, 
and was made Assistant Surgeon General, where his 
known skill as a surgeon, his great executive abil- 
ity, and energy, were invaluable. Though genial 
and social in his habits, he never, either by his 
presence or conversation, promoted or countenanced 
gambling, drinking, and other vices, that swept into 
the vortex of ruin so many brilliant and talented 
young men in early days. At present he is practic- 
ing medicine in Nevada. 

Doctor Sharp was an able and successful physi- 
cian for many years in Jackson. 

Doctor Lyons was a farmer and physician in lone. 
He was unfortunate in his domestic relations, in 
being connected, by report at least, in the drowning 
of his wife, which happened in a well in his own 
yard. He was acquitted by the jury of the charge 
of murder, and soon after left the country. 

"THE OWL." 

This was a paper published occasionally in the 
early days of Jackson — a sort of bubbling or froth- 
ing over of wit that was too lively to be bottled up. 
A reproduction of some of its articles will recall 
many incidents, in connection with the county seat, 
long forgotten: — 

In Snougerville's romantic bay 

A gallant bark at anchor lay, 

Whose banner bore this strange device : 

Inquire at Logan's for the price 

Of passage up Salt river. 

The Owl, upon its office door, 

The following flaming placard bore: 

"Here Logan, agent of the line, 
From four o'clock till half-past nine, 

. Sells tickets for Salt river." 

At four o'clock, the anxious crew, 
With vacant looks and pockets, too, 
Crowded around the sanctum door 
Of him, who oft had made before, 
The passage up Salt river. 




RANCH a RESIDENCE <" WILLIAM H. PROUTY, Jackson Valley, Amador count/, Cal. 



■'■.5'/: ''■;.■;■'/■"; ■.■-*■ 



<?-> 



«* IS 




RESIDENCE of EDGAR BISHOP, 
IONE" CITY, AMADOR COUNTY; CAL. 



*TH. GRITTC'.' & «cv 5 1 



ORGANIZATION OF AMADOR COUNTY. 



81 



Towering above the east was seen 
A stove-pipe hat* of doubtful mien; 
Battered and bruised, and crushed, it looked 
As if its owner had been booked 
Already for Salt river. 

The poem had eighteen verses of this kind, filled 
with allusions to noted persons. Snougerville was 
a name given to what is now called Water street. 
One of its citizens was nicknamed Snouger — hence, 
Snouger bay. 

From the Owl, August 25, 1854: — 

There was a sound of revelry by night, 

And our new county seat had gathered then 

Her miners, and her merchants; and the light 

Of tallow candles shone on drunken men. 

A dozen hats had bricks in them; and when 

Some jolly fellow, tighter than the rest, 

Invited the whole crowd to drink again, 

Not one among them needed to be pressed; 

But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes every guest. 

Did ye not hear it? No, 'twas but the wind, 

Or some damned jackass braying in the street. 

Give us our drinks — let joy be unconfined; 

Nor part till morn — we've got the county seat. 

What fellow was it offered to stand treat ? 

But hark ! that heavy sound breaks in once more, 

As if the walls its echo would repeat, 

And nearer, more distinctly than before 

It is ! it is, to be concluded next week. 

COURTS ESTABLISHED. 

The first term of the Court of Sessions was held 
in McKimm's Building, near the present Central 
House; M. W. Gordon, acting as Judge; O. P. 
Southwell and William Wagner, as Associate Judges. 
These last were selected from the Justices of the 
Peace elect. The names of the first Grand Jury 
were D. W. Aldrich, C. Dertbick, D. L. Wells, W. 
S. Birdsell, James Beckman, W. P. Jones, A. L. 
Harding, I. Bell, Leori Sompayrac, Robert Reed, B. 
S. Sanborn, Simeon Burt, Thomas Jones, Frank 
Wayne, A. B. Andrews, E. Evans, S. D. Herrick, 
and J. T. King. 

Levi Hanford not appearing in season, and hav- 
ing no satisfactory excuse, was fined twenty-five 
dollars, which he paid. 

The first indictment for murder was against John 
Chapman, for the murder of E. P. Hunter, of Lancha 
Plana. The case of C. Y. Hammond, who had the 
previous Summer killed his partner Elliot, as it was 
alleged, with a blow of his fist, came before them 
and was dismissed. Indictments for assault with 
intent to commit murder, were found against one 
Mexican, and several Chinamen. They also recom- 
mended the suppression of the houses of prostitution, 
so frequent and conspicuous in Jackson, and the 
other towns; the division of the county into town- 
ships, also the purchase of a safe, for keeping the 
public funds. 

The first trial jury was in the case, " The people 
vs. Domingo Yerjara," the names of the jurors be- 
ing Nathan Coon, John T. Griggs, E. H. Williams, 
Charles Towles, A. H. Kirby, William Jennings, 
John Rawley, John McKay, James Creighton, Will- 
iam Horton, J. L. Averill, and B. Ashton. 

Referring to Colonel Piatt. 
11 



EFFORTS TO SUPPRESS DISORDERLY HOUSES. 

The first Grand Jury had called the attention of 
the authorities to the houses conspicuously kept for 
the purposes of prostitution. The courts paid little 
attention to it, perhaps thinking the Puritanic 
spasm would soon pass away, or that the matter was 
a dangerous one to touch, on account of so many of 
the courts' constituents making their living by it. 
But the second Grand Jury, summoned for Decem- 
ber, 1854, took the creature by the horns, and in- 
dicted several prominent citizens for renting houses 
for the purposes of prostitution. The parties were 
duly arraigned in court. After some skirmishing the 
charge was dismissed on motion of the District 
Attorney, S. B. Axtell, on the ground of want of 
evidence. The jury .also found true Bills against the 
town authorities for obtaining money under false 
pretenses, for licensing the aforesaid places as busi- 
ness houses. On motion of the District Attorney the 
Court dismissed the charge. 

The names of the Grand Jury, which made these 
efforts at reform: George L. Gale, Foreman; James 
L. Harnett, T. H. Loehr, Thomas S. Crafts, I. Stew- 
art, J. W. D. Palmer, G. M. S. Matthews, L. L. Robin- 
son, Silvester Streeter, D. C. Ferris, James Johnson, 
A. D. Follett, James M. Ballard, I. S. Roy, A. Boi- 
leau, Scott Cooledge, and Samuel Davis. 

Though these efforts miscarried, they showed that 
the leaven of reform was beginning to work. The 
practices were not stopped, but the stamp of con- 
demnation was set on them, so that a man seeking 
office at the hands of the people, made a practice at 

least of decency. In a man of education and 

apparent respectability, with M. D. to his name, in 
the town of Yolcano, waited upon a prostitute to a 
circus. There were numbers of respectable females, 
young and old, present, and though the doctor had 
an undoubted right to select his company, the act 
was looked upon as at war with the better interests 
of society. The roads were rather muddy, and the 
portly doctor took the soiled dove in his arms and 
carried her home, the act being as coolly done in the 
presence of hundreds, as though the woman was a 
cherished wife or daughter. The following Autumn 
he came up as a candidate for Sheriff. He was met 
with such a rebuff that he withdrew his name, and 
shortly left the town. In the earlier days persons 
high in office were often seen in the dance with the 
frail ones. 

AMUSING PROCESSION. 

It will be remembered that the several towns anx- 
ious to have the honor of being the county seat, Yol- 
cano excepted, offered liberal sums for the erection 
of county buildings. Some of the croakers pre- 
dicted that the promises would be forgotten after the 
election. The prediction did not prove true, for 
Jackson went to work in good faith, and at the end 
of three or four months presented to the county a 
nice and comfortable Court House. The county 
officers had been occupying rooms at the foot of 



82 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Broadway, in and around the American Hotel. A 
procession was formed here to take possession of the 
new Court House. The order of the procession was 
as follows : — 

BAND, 

Consisting of cracked drum and asthmatic clarionet. 

[This was as good as the band which escorted Na- 
poleon to his palace on the island of Elba, which, 
according to Sir Walter Scott, consisted of four 
wretched fiddles.] 

Firemen — (In red Shirts). 

M. W. Gordon, County Judge, 

Flanked by 

Wm. Wagner and O.P.Southwell, Associate Judges, 

John Phoenix, Sheriff; S. B. Axtell, District 

Attorney; J. C. Shipman, County 

Clerk; Wm. L. McKimm, 

•Treasurer; 

Followed by Citizens generally. 

They marched to the Court House in a body, when, 
after Court was called, A. C. Brown, in behalf of the 
citizens of Jackson, presented the building to the 
county. Judge Gordon accepted it in a neat speech, 
complimenting the citizens of Jackson on their liber- 
ality and public spirit. Some four or five hundred 
dollars, back on the erection of the bailding, was 
made up by subscription, Major Shipman, the 
recently elected County Clerk, giving fifty dollars 
towards it. The location of the county seat at Jack- 
son, was supposed to insure the permanent prosperity 
of the town. In the burst of enthusiasm following 
the settlement of the matter, the Court,, county 
officers, and citizens generally, were invited to par- 
take of the hospitalities of several of the leading- 
saloons and bars of the town. The procession 
reformed in the same order as before. The Court being 
still in session (according to our informant) the offi- 
cers, jurors and witnesses were compelled to follow, 
or subject themselves to a fine for contempt! There 
is no record of any punishment for contumacy or 
even of failure to partake of the proffered hospital- 
ities, so it is presumed that the arrangement was 
mutually satisfactory. Our informant, though a 
juror, and consequently obliged to follow the Court 
while it was in session, may have been mistaken in 
thinking the Court was not adjourned, but, as sus- 
pecting his veracity would spoil a good story, it is 
best to give the story the benefit of the doubt. 
election, 1854. 

Dwight Crandall (Democrat) was elected Senator 
and James T. Farley and J. W. D. Palmer (Whigs) 
were elected Assemblymen. The county was con- 
sidered Democratic, but the Know-Nothing or Native 
American party had organized and made itself a 
power in politics. The campaign was conducted 
mostly by James T. Farley and Alonzo Piatt, the 
latter, though an old politician, being no match for 
the young candidate, who, though in his early twen- 



ties, showed canvassing powers of the highest order. 
He did not carry any angular notions into the can- 
vass, but professed to be willing to be governed by 
the will of the people. 

The vote for Governor stood: J. Neely Johnson 
(Know-Nothing), 2,035 ; John Bigler (Democrat), 
1,719. 

FIRST TAX LEVY. 

The Legislature of 1853-4 having abolished the 
office of Supervisors in Calaveras county, the Court 
of Sessions was empowered to transact the business 
of the county. August 26, 1854, the Court ordered 
a tax of fifty cents on each one hundred dollars of 
property, five cents of which was to be devoted to 
school purposes, and forty-five to county purposes. 

CONDITION OF SOCIETY IN 1854. 

The introduction of improved methods of mining 
brought a great increase of population to Amador, 
as well as the other counties of California. Along 
with prosperity came the institutions, the dance- 
house and the gambling saloons, looked upon then as 
a peculiar feature in California society, but which is 
now found to be a natural growth wherever sudden 
wealth comes to those unacquainted with its proper 
use. The absence of the family influence also fav- 
ored a condition of society in which the influence of 
woman was in the descending scale. The soiled 
doves were mostly natives of Mexico, " dusky daugh- 
ters of Montezuma " as the poets termed them, and 
of Peru. It is said that at one time two hundred of 
the frail beauties were resident in the town of Jack- 
son. Their daily appearance on the street or danc- 
ing during the evening in sight from the street, 
called forth no remark of disapproval but had come 
to be regarded as a matter of course. Some respect- 
able citizens made left-handed wives of them, and 
wealthy men did not hesitate to build houses and 
rent them for these institutions. Men who had left 
families in the East were seen in friendly chat, and 
young men by the score or hundreds rather poured 
their gold into wanton laps. Some of these women 
would accumulate ten thousand dollars, or in some 
instances double that, in a Winter's campaign. 

Faro, monte and other games gave the lucky miner 
a chance to double his money or lose it, the latter 
being the ordinary result. Many men who now 
bewail their bad luck in California, turned their earn- 
ings into these banks that receive deposits but never 
pay interest or principal. Whisky, too, had its dev- 
otees, and the principle was inculcated that he who 
would not drink was a mean man. Nearly all social 
' intercourse was based upon " drinks all around." 
When men met and when they parted, drinks 
were in order; when they traded, drinks for all 
were ordered as a matter of course. When a 
man ran for office, whisky was his trump card. 
An old politician said to a man about running for 
office: "If you will not treat, you may as well 
stay at home and give it up." Another one said: 



RANCHERIA MURDERS. 



83 



" Twelve hundred drinks elected me." To decline 
these social observances was to become to some 
extent ostracised. There were exceptions it is true; 
there were men who would shut themselves in their 
cabins and decline all intercourse rather than indulge 
in the prevailing vices. These would remain 
unknown until fortune in the shape of a rich claim 
smiled on them, and then they were mentioned in no 
complimentary terms. Every day men might be seen 
in all stages of intoxication; some crazy with rough 
fun. others ready for a brawl. One day one man in a 
cabin was on a spree and requiring the restraint of 
his companions, the next another. Whether because 
the whisky was bad or because the hot, dry climate 
aggravated the ills of the fiery liquors, or both, the 
effect was disastrous, morally, physically, financially. 
The men capable of writing a solid article on politi- 
cal or scientific subjects, or of delivering an oration 
off-hand, could be seen ranting and howling through 
the streets or sleeping oft' the effects of a debauch. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

RANCHERIA MURDERS. 

Ill-feeling between the Americans and Mexicans — Frequency of 
Murders — The Band First Seen at Hacalitas — Up Dry Creek 
— At Rancheria — To Drytown — A Second Time to Rancheria 
— Slaughter — Departure of the Robbers — Excitement the 
Next Day — Immense Gathering — Trial and Hanging of the 
Mexicans — Death of Roberts — Borquitas — Rresence ot County 
Officers — Pursuit of the Murderers — Hunt Around Bear 
Mountain — The Murderers Overtaken — Death of Phoenix — 
Expulsion and Disarming of Mexican Population — Outrages 
at Drytown — Burning of the Church — Mass Meeting at 
Jackson — Review After a Lapse of a Quarter of a Century. 

This affair happened something over a quarter of 
a century since. Many of the witnesses are dead, 
others are gone, and many have forgotten some of 
the important matters. Those who are accustomed 
to criminal trials, know how contradictory testi- 
mony may be among candid, truth-telling men, even 
while the events are fresh in the mind. How much 
more difficult then to get at the truth when a quarter 
of a century has rolled over the events, inevitably 
obliterating much that would be necessary to form 
a rational opinion of the murders, and the resulting 
events of the following month. A somewhat retro- 
spective view of the relations between the Mexican 
population and our own, seems necessary, to get a 
correct view of the situation. 

There never was a good feeling between the 
native population and the Americans. The indolent 
native, fond of his siesta and cigarette, proud of the 
smallest quantity of Castilian blood, and holding 
in utter abhorrence laborious occupations, had, at 
first, contempt, and then hatred, for the wild Ameri- 
canos, or Gringos (green-horns), as the Americans 
were termed, who seemed to be endowed with an 
infernal energy that tore up all the ordinary routine 
of life, and made men almost maniacs, in the search 
for wealth. 

This feeling was older than the war in which Cal- 



ifornia was conquered. Years before that Alexander 
Forbes, an Englishman, now a resident of Oakland, 
who wrote the " History of California," as early as 
1835, speaks of occasional parties of Americans who 
came from the frontiers of the United States, whom 
no danger could appall and no difficulty deter; who 
would be likely in time to take California and hold 
it as they had taken Texas, if some foreign power 
did not step in and forestall them. At the time of 
the war, there were some two hundred Americans 
who had ofton made their power felt. Isaac Graham, 
with some fifty or sixty men, had taken possession 
of the Capital (Monterey), and made Juan B. Alva- 
rado, Governor. They were always in a quasi 
rebellion. Fremont with his battalion, had gone in 
force through the country, stubbornly refusing to 
be whipped. The Mexican Government had an 
article inserted in the treaty, that the rights of the 
Mexicans to their property in California should be 
respected. But this did not prevent the Americans, 
on the discovery of gold, from taking possession of 
the best lands, and parceling them out into farms 
and cultivating them. The native owner was wont 
to consider himself lucky if he could save even his 
houses and his herds. The latter, the Americans 
would drive off and slaughter by the thousand, with 
hardly a pretense of secrecy. In this way the herds 
of nearly all the old dons were exterminated. The 
titles to their lands were scarcely ever recognized 
until they had passed into the hands of the Amer-"' 
icans. In the gold mines, they were treated as 
intruders, and the discovery of a placer was sure to 
bring a swarm of men about, who believed in 
" Americans ruling America." This ill-feeling often 
culminated in murder and robbery. Particular 
roads frequented by parties of Mexicans, were found 
to be dangerous to travel. Several persons had been 
murdered on the road between Drytown and 
Cosumnes. Murderer's gulch, north of the town, had 
witnessed several murders, which, as the people 
believed, had been traced to the native population. 
Several attempts had been made to banish them from 
the country, but when driven from one camp they 
would go to another. As the miners were roving 
about and the population changing, the expulsion 
was soon forgotten, and the natives would return 
embittered and sullen. Joaquin's raids through the 
country had not been forgotten, and when the news 
of the slaughter of six or seven persons at Rancheria 
had spread over the county, it is not strange that 
the community should be terribly excited, and should 
be moved to deeds which were afterwards looked 
upon with regret. 

The murders were committed by twelve men, one 
of whom seemed to be white, and one a black man, 
the rest appearing to be of the ordinary Mexican type. 
Some of these were men of education, others had 
been vaqueros in the valleys; and all perhaps felt 
that they had some grievance to avenge, for we 
cannot account for their subsequent career on any 



84 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



other hypothesis. They were first heard from at 
Hacalitas (hard camp) not far from the Q ranch, 
on the night of the 5th of August, 1855, where they 
stayed all night. 

The following morning, Monday, August Gth, they 
left the camp and made their way towards Drytown, 
first robbing a China camp, leaving the Chinamen tied. 
They passed some white men without disturbing 
them, however. It happened that George Durham, 
foreign tax collector, had started on much the same 
route and found that all the China camps from there 
to Rancheria had been robbed. He got a very good 
description of the numbers and appearance of the 
men, and found that they had been at Rancheria at 
Francis' store; also saw their camp just out of the 
town. He warned Francis against the men, saying 
that he thought they were the same men who had 
recently committed some depredations at Tuttle's 
store in Tuolumne county, and told Francis that he 
was in danger of being robbed. Durham then went 
towards Drytown, passing their camp. There 
seemed to be some difficulty among them, as two 
were well stripped apparently to fight, but were 
quieted by a tall, slender man, who seemed to be 
recognized as a chief. Two of the party followed 
Durham as if to attack him, but turned back after 
going a short distance. At Drytown, Durham en- 
gaged Cross, the constable, to assist in collecting the 
tax from the Chinamen at Milton's ranch, as they had 
''dodged him before when he went alone. They got 
back to Drytown about dark, and went into Mizen- 
er's store. While there Judge Curtis came in and said 
that a Spanish woman had come to his office and 
told him that the town was full of robbers; that she 
was afraid that they were all going to be robbed. 
The description of the party corresponded with the 
party which had been seen at Rancheria, and Cross 
and Durham resolved to visit the place on Chile flat 
where the robbers were taking supper. On coming 
to the house, they had left, but were found a short 
distance to the rear. Both parties, as they met, 
commenced firing, some thirty or forty shots being 
exchanged. The Mexicans were on an elevation, 
and Durham and Cross were in a depression; these 
circumstances as well as the darkness prevented any 
fatal results, one person only, a Mexican, being 
wounded. Both parties now withdrew, the Mexicans 
going to their camp on the hill a half mile away, and 
Durham and Cross to the American part of the town. 
It was now evident that no small job was on hand. 
Twelve desperate men thoroughly armed would take 
the town. The citizens had heard the firing and 
many of the bullets had struck the buildings, though 
without doing any damage to persons. Although 
this was in 1855, only a few years away from the 
time that the men crossed the plains each with his 
rifle in order, but few fire-arms could be found. 
When these had been gathered up, it was learned 
that the banditti had decamped and gone toward 
Rancheria. Whether it was a ruse to draw the 



armed party away from the town or not was uncer- 
tain, but it was now evident that one or both places 
was to be attacked. It was also evident that, but for 
the premature alarm, Drytown would have been the 
first victim, and probably Rancheria afterwards. 
Two persons, Robert Cosner being one, volunteered 
to go to Rancheria to inform them of the danger. 
They avoided the road, going up Rattlesnake gulch; 
but while the party were discussing the matter the 
Mexicans had done the work. On the arrival of Cos- 
ner and , the robbers appeared to be leaving the 

town on the opposite side. There were no lights and 
a dreadful silence prevailed. They called aloud sev- 
eral times before they heard any reply. David Wil- 
son was found hiding in a ditch; when he heard 
their voices he said: " My God! The whole town is 
slaughtered; my brother Sam is killed, and I don't 
know how many more." At Francis' store they 
found Dan Hutchinson, his clerk, dead behind the 

counter, also Sam "Wilson and . Francis was 

missing but was found not far away with both legs 
broken and several severe wounds, but still alive! It 
seemed that he had fought them to the last and 
eventually ran out of the back door on the stumps 
of his legs. While searching for Francis they found 
the dead body of an Indian. The safe was blown 
open and the contents, about twenty thousand dol- 
lars, abstracted. AtDynan's Hotel they found Mrs. 
Dynan dead, shot thi-ough the body, and Dynan 
wounded. Mrs. Dynan seemed to have been shot 
while putting her child out of the window. Francis 
died the next day. One leg was amputated and the 
other set with the hope of saving his life. After 
death it was discovered that his back bone was 
nearly severed, apparently by a blow from an axe. 
Altogether there were six men, one woman and an 
Indian killed and two men wounded. It seemed that 
the party divided, a part going to each house, com- 
mencing the attack at about the same moment. At 
Dynan's a party were playing cards when the house 
was attacked. Dynan escaped up stairs and through 
the windows. A man by the name of Foster, the 
simpleton of the party, had wit enough to throw 
himself under the table and remain there until the 
trouble was over and thus saved his life. 

THE NEXT DAY 

The news rapidly spread. By nine the next morn- 
ing perhaps five hundred people were present. The 
atrocious character of the murders, the unprovoked 
and causeless attack, raised the anger of the mass of 
the people almost beyond control. Some were for an 
immediate war on all of the Mexican race. Parties 
were engaged in arresting and bringing in all in the 
vicinity. It is difficult now to ascertain whether any 
trial was held or not. There was no organization of 
the crowd which was continually coming and going. 
A few elderly men, among whom may be mentioned 
two Hinksons, acted as a sort of jury, to give a form 
of delibex-ation to the affair. Judge Curtis is said 




Ranch, Residence and Business Place of S.W.EMMONS, "*"' 
Pine Grove, Amador C°Cal. 



'. BRITTON ft ACT. t. f. 



RANCHERIA MURDERS. 



85 



also to have taken part in the proceedings. These 
men were noted for their moderation and prudence. 
They probably prevented the crowd from doing 
much worse than it did. " Let us proceed cau- 
tiously; let us be just; let us hang no innocent men," 
said they. They were men in whom the people had 
confidence. Some thirty-five men were brought 
within the rope circle and guarded. A motion was 
put to hang the whole of them, all but a few voting 
for it. They were then asked to give the men a 
trial. This was reluctantly consented to; and a com- 
mittee — it could not be called a jury — set themselves 
to ascertain the evidence against the men. All that 
could be found was that James Johnson, a miner 
who lived in a cabin near by, and looked out through 
a crack in the door when the shooting was going on, 
thought he heard a Mexican, called Port Wine (because 
he was always drunk, or nearly so, on port), shout- 
ing for Mexico. Another one had placed a light in 
the road in front of his house. The third one was 
seen running around with the banditti during the 
shooting. This was on the testimony of one man 
who thought he saw it through a slight opening of his 
cabin door. The committee reported that this was 
all that could be found against any of them. It was 
determined to hang them immediately. Port Wine 
was a half-witted man, almost incapable of commit- 
ting a ci'ime. He cried and begged, to no purpose; 
he was hung while his wife was begging for him, 
two others being hung at the same time. The jury, 
whose names it is impossible to learn, must not be 
blamed in this matter. It is impossible to tell what 
any one would do until they arc tried. Hundreds of 
exasperated people were clamoring for the death of 
somebody. It is likely that the hanging of the three 
appeased, to some extent, the thirst for vengeance. 
William O. Clark, a well-known citizen of Drytown, 
made a speech advocating a trial by law, by the 
Courts, and made an appeal to the people to place 
themselves, in imagination, in a foreign country, and 
about to be hung for a crime some of their own 
countrymen had committed; but the people were in 
no mood to hear finely constructed sentences, and 
he was silenced. It was even proposed to hang him 
for being friendly to the Mexicans. A Mrs. Ketchum 
was particularly active in creating a sentiment 
against Clark. The balance of the party arrested 
were liberated on condition of leaving the camp 
within four hours. 

DEATH OF ROBERTS. 

About this time a terrible accident occurred. A 
man by the name of Roberts, or Robinson, who had 
been one of the most violent in demanding a whole- 
sale hanging, shot himself in the breast, dying imme- 
diately. There are so many conflicting reports that 
it is with reluctance the subject is mentioned. One 
person says they were about to go home, and Rob- 
erts was taking the gun towards him, neither angry 
nor intoxicated, when it went off, striking him in 



the breast. Another one says that Robinson — or 
Roberts — was violently demanding the death of 
another prisoner, which was not immediately 
assented to, whereupon he said he would settle the 
question himself, snatching up the gun with the 
result heretofore stated. 

BORQUITAS. 

William Sutherland, whose veracity no one will 
question, relates the following circumstances in 
regard to it: A young Spaniard by the name of 
Borquitas, General Castro's business agent, happened 
to be visiting Sutherland's at the time of the mur- 
ders Being a well educated man, speaking the 
English language fluently, he remarked that he 
might be of assistance in ferreting out the criminals, 
and would go up to Rancheria. When he got there, 
he found himself one of the criminals, or, at least, 
he was reckoned among the criminal class. During 
the affair, trial it could not be called, he conversed 
with one of the accused. Becoming convinced of 
the innocence of the party of any complicity in the 
murders, he told the people so; whereupon, it was 
proposed to hang him (Borquitas) also. It was 
then that Roberts undertook to shoot him, with the 
result of death to himself. Sutherland then told 
Borquitas that he could do no good by staying and 
risking his own life; that he had better leave. Tak- 
ing the advice of Sutherland, he left in the con- 
fusion, caused by the death of Roberts. 

It is said that Judge Gordon, S. B. Axtell, District 
Attorney, Judge Hubbard, and others, were present; 
but as the hanging took place before noon, and the 
Court met at ten, as usual, on the morning after the 
murders, it is almost impossible that they should 
have witnessed the hanging, though they pi*obably 
were present dui'ing the afternoon. 

Port Wine had a good claim, which was considered 
forfeited at his death, James Robinson, on whose 
testimony he was hung, taking possession of it the 
same evening. He worked it for a few days, but 
finding work a burden, he sold it for two hundred 
dollars, which he spent in a week's spree, shortly 
after. 

WHERE WERE THE OFFICERS? 

Phoenix, and some of his deputies, visited the 
scene of the disturbance, in the early morning. 
After looking at the mutilated bodies, he merely 
said, " Follow me." A party was immediately organ- 
ized to pursue the banditti, which, as before stated, 
left Rancheria, taking the road towards El Dorado 
county. This proved to be a false scent. They 
went as far as Indian Diggings, and, finding them- 
selves off the trail, returned to Jackson. There they 
learned that the gang had crossed the Mokelumne 
at Diamond bar. Phoenix, Cross, Perrin, Sherry, 
Eichelberger, and Durham, went to Mokelumne 
Hill that night. They there learned that Sheriff 
Clark, Paul McCormick, and six-fingered Smith of 
Camp Seco, had attacked the murderers at Texas 



si; 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



bar, on the Calaveras, and had wounded and cap- 
lured ono of the party, who had bold the history 
and names of the others. His name was Manuel 
Garcia, and he had been a vaquero for Charles 
Stone, at Bucna Vista. lie was sent to Jackson 
with Eichelberger and Perrin. The crowd had 
assembled to receive him; parting to the right and 
left, and closing up after him, they escorted the 
prisoner to the tree, which was already provided 
with a noose. When his head was placed in it, the 
buggy was moved along, and the body left dangling. 
This was the eighth time the tree had borne its fruit. 

It was now ascertained that the balance of the 
party were concealed around Bear mountain. Two 
days spent in hunting failed to find them; and then 
the officers went to Jenny Lind where they learned 
that the Mexicans were camped near Reynold's 
ferry on the Stanislaus. A large number of Mex- 
icans at Jenny Lind were disarmed, to prevent 
any assistance reaching the banditti from that settle- 
ment, and the pursuit continued, but somebody had 
given notice of the approach of the officers and 
the party had left going towards the Tuolumne 
river. A guard was set at Reynold's ferry, but the 
robbers did not attempt to cross. The next day the 
officers visited Tuttletown, Sonora, Campo Seco, and 
Jamestown. At the latter place they again struck 
the trail, and found some of the horses, which had 
been stolen at Rancheria, dying of exhaustion. 

The reader will bear in mind that the ground at 
this season of the year (August) is hard as a rock, 
receiving scarcely any impression from a hoof or 
a shoe passing along; and besides the Mexicans 
traveled in the night time, concealing themselves in 
the thick chaparral, with ""which the hills around 
Bear mountain abound during the day, so that 
closely following the trail was out of the question; 
but it was now evident that they were nearing the 
objects of their search. Chinese Camp and a Mexican 
camp, at what is called Old Chinese Camp, were 
visited. At the latter place was a large dance-house 
near the hills, the thick chaparral coming down close 
to the house. It was out of the question to get any 
correct information with regard to the party they 
were in search of, but they concluded to stop awhile 
and watch events. Drinks around and the usual 
hospitalities followed, as a matter of course. While 
some of the party engaged the senoritas in conver- 
sation, others kept a general lookout. A girl at the 
door was seen making signals to some one in the 
rear, as if to go away. Durham sprang to the door, 
and saw some of the men they were in search of. 
Phoenix was anxious to capture them alive, and to 
this reluctance to kill them, was due the fatal result; 
but shooting commenced at once. It is difficult to 
recall events in their order, in which two or three 
seconds make a failure or success of a movement; 
but in the affray Phoenix was the first to fall; his 
slayer the next — the latter though severely wounded, 
still kept fighting, being finally dispatched by a blow 



on the head with an axe. The party dispersed in a 
short time, the officers holding the ground. A boy, 
who had witnessed the affair from a distance, told 
the officers that he had seen a wounded man crawl 
into a cloth shanty, Mood stains indicating the cor- 
rectness of the statement. The man was told to 
come out, but as no answer was received, the hut 
was set on fire, as it was deemed dangerous to follow 
him in. Not until it was blazing all over, so that it 
was thought impossible for any living being to be 
there, did he appear. He rushed out, covered with 
blood, clothes and hair on fire, with a pistol in each 
hand, shooting as he came. He was more frightful 
than dangerous, and was soon quieted. Phoenix 
was shot through the heart, dying immediately. He 
was buried by the Masonic order at Sonora. He was, 
perhaps, thirty years old, of social character, open- 
hearted, holding malice towards none, and was 
universally esteemed. He was in poor health at the 
time, hardly fit for such an enterprise, as he took 
upon himself to lead. On his return from the 
unsuccessful search in El Dorado, he was urged to 
rest; was told that, considering the disturbed con- 
dition of the county, his presence was needful — which 
was true. But he replied that if he should decline 
pursuing the murderers, his courage would be called 
in question, and he stai'ted the same evening. His 
attempt to capture the men alive, was a fatal mis- 
take. It was no kindness to the party, for, in the 
excited condition of the people, every one taken was 
sure to be hung without a trial. 

This affair occurred Sunday evening, August 12, 
1855. 

A day or two after these occurrences, Marshall 
Wood, of the town of Columbia, telegraphed the 
party that he had arrested forty or more Spaniards, 
and thought that some of the men they were in 
search of, were among them. On visiting Sonora, 
Durham recognized one of the party, a well-dressed, 
educated, young man, who had formerly lived at 
Dry town. At first, he understood no English, knew 
nothing about the matter, but upon being called by 
name, Manuel Escobar, and being told that Garcia, 
the one taken at Camp Seco, had given the names of 
the whole party, he commenced cursing in good 
English, and did not deny his connection with the 
murders. He was taken to Jackson, and hung, being 
the tenth and last hung on the famous tree. A 
photograph was taken of the scene, and the picture 
lithographed, some copies of which are still pre- 
served by the people of Jackson. 

Shortly after this, an old Mexican from Algerine 
Camp, told the officers that the man who had 
killed Phoenix, came to his house wounded in sev- 
eral places, he thought fatally, wanting to be taken 
care of; that he did not wish to harbor him, as he 
thought that the Americans would kill him if they 
found it out, and so told the wounded man, who, 
however, threatened to kill him. if he refused assist- 
ance. The old Mexican had put him down a shaft 



RANCHERIA MURDERS. 



87 



which had a short tunnel connected with it, in which 
the wounded man was hiding. Durham and his party- 
visited the place, and called upon the man to come 
out; receiving no answer, some brush was thrown 
into the shaft and set on fire, shortly after which 
the report of a pistol was heard. He had shot him- 
self rather than surrender. When the fire had gone 
out, he was brought out dead. He was shot in five 
places around the neck, and could hardly have recov- 
ered under any circumstances. 

EXPULSION AND DISARMING OF THE MEXICAN 
POPULATION. 

The excitement all through the county was such 
that business was nearly suspended. Extravagant 
rumors of the intention of the Mexican population 
to rise and take the county, got into circulation. The 
same excitability that demanded the hanging of a 
whole nationality, formed a good material to float 
impossible stories of an insurrection. The second 
day after the murders, a great number of people 
came around Rancheria. The Mexicans had left the 
day of the hanging. It is said that some of the 
wives and friends of the executed had hardly time to 
bury the dead. When the crowd came the second 
day they destroyed all the hats and houses belong- 
ing to the Mexicans. It was then resolved that they 
should leave the country. A large body of those 
that had been expelled from Rancheria were en- 
camped in Mile gulch, which runs north into Dry 
creek, its head being near the town. Thither the 
party proceeded. An indiscriminate shooting com- 
menced. Some Indians, who seemed to be watching 
the Spanish, were told to kill all they could. Some 
were known to be killed — it is hoped, however, not 
as many as were reported — but the whole people 
left as rapidly as they could. One Mexican was seen 
packing two trunks on each side of a donkey. The 
overloaded animal could not keep up and he was 
obliged to abandon them. They were broken open 
and found to be filled with shirts and finery, appar- 
ently goods plundered from Francis' store. The 
Indians drew these on, one over another, until they 
would have on five or six each. This prevented the 
Indians from killing many of the fugitives, though 
when questioned about it afterwards, they said they 
had killed ocho, meaning eight. Some were found 
dead in holes and shafts, others at springs, where 
they had dragged themselves after being wounded. 
Several persons say they have seen the hogs devour- 
ing the bodies of the slain. Pork was at a discount 
during the season, on that account. At Sutter 
Creek an extravagant rumor got into circulation that 
five hundred men were coming to take the town. A 
committee of safety was organized, and some fifty or 
6ixty Mexicans who were mining on Gopher flat, 
were arrested and brought to town. One man was 
unfortunate enough to have some connection, in some 
way, with the Rancheria affair. He was traced into 
the Mexican camp and a thorough search made for 



him. It was about to be abandoned when a large 
pile of clothes, just ironed, lying on a bed, attracted 
attention. Underneath was found the man. He was 
dragged out and hung on a gibbet made by lashing 
wagon-tongues together, forming an A, the wagons 
being locked to prevent separation. The fifty on 
Gopher Flat were ordered to leave, which they con- 
sented to do provided an escort was given them, for 
they dared not leave the town disarmed and alone. 
They were escorted across the Mokelumne river. At 
that time nearly the whole of the street below the 
bridge, was occupied by the Mexican population. 
They were ordered to leave and senoras and seiioritas, 
as well as the children (of which there was a con- 
siderable number), were seen climbing the hills on 
their way out of the town. At Hacalitas, the camp 
where the banditti stayed the Sunday night previous 
to the outrage, the people were disarmed and ordered 
to leave. One white man was left to make out the 
passports, the others leaving for a similar duty at 
another camp. The Mexicans at Hacalitas pleaded 
utter ignorance of any knowledge or participation 
in the operations of the murderers, but went without 
making any resistance. A company from Drytown 
went towards El Dorado county, disarming and driv- 
ing all the Mexicans away. Men came back with 
numbers of revolvers and other arms taken from 
them. 

OUTRAGES AT DRYTOWN. 

There were but few Mexicans at Drytown, the 
Spanish population being mostly Chilenos; hence, 
the name Chile Flat, the portion of the town where 
they lived. Though speaking the same language, 
the Chilenos and Mexicans had very little to do 
with each other; and, consequently, the Chilenos 
were not charged with any complicity in the out- 
rages at Rancheria, and were generally living on 
good terms with the people of Drytown. 

On the following Sunday, about dark, some fifteen 
or twenty men on horseback, came into Drytown, 
and set fire to the Chilenian part of it, and in a few 
minutes the whole was in a blaze. The people, 
most of whom were poor, some being women and 
children, ran in dismay to some of their friends, 
among the Americans. It is said that William O. 
Clark's house was filled with crying women and 
children, who had fled from their burning homes. 
One man, by the name of Williston, usually called 
Boston, from his native city, set fire to the Catholic 
church, which was soon in ashes. The persons 
engaged in this evening's work, seemed to have had 
all their plans laid before coming into town, appar- 
ently consulted no one, and permitting no interfer- 
ence. Some of the citizens of Drytown have been 
charged with assisting the rioters, but a thorough 
investigation fails to connect any one of its citizens 
with the affair, which was generally condemned as 
cruel and wanton. 



88 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



CONVENTION, OH MASS MEETING, AT JACKSON. 

A meeting was called to consider the propriety 
of outlawing all of the Mexican population. Sorrrc 
of the more violent approved of the measure, but 
the hanging of the men at Jackson and Rancheria, 
the excesses committed at Mile gulch and vicinity, 
had caused the more thoughtful to doubt the pro- 
priety or necessity of turning all the blood-thirsty 
loose, with license to kill Mexicans wherever they 
could be found, for such would be the result of out- 
lawry. R. M. Briggs, especially, violently opposed 
the measure, and it was abandoned. Most of the 
Mexicans had left the county, and the necessity of 
such a measure, was questionable on several grounds. 
W. O. Clark, who opposed it, perhaps in imprudent 
words, came near being lynched, his speeches at 
Rancheria, the day after the murders, being remem- 
bered. Many of the Mexicans who fled the county 
on that occasion, settled near Jenny Lind, in Cala- 
veras county, where they have made peaceable and 
quiet citizens. 

GENERAL PEELING A QUARTER OF A CENTURY AFTER. 

There are few, and the number is few, who helped 
to vindicate justice, as they term it, who are proud 
of the part they took in the matter. But the more 
thoughtful look at it as one full of excesses to be re- 
gretted. There are many who believe that the three 
persons hung at Rancheria the day following the out- 
rage were entirely innocent of any complicity in the 
crimes committed. There appeared to have been 
two classes of the Mexicans, the caballeros or horse- 
men and the peons or laboring class. The first were 
accustomed here, as they were in Mexico, to help 
themselves to whatever they wanted of the -peons, 
who occupied much of the former position of the 
blacks in the Southern States, having no rights which 
a caballero was bound to respect. It is said that when- 
ever these gentry were known to be in a Mexican 
camp, or expected, the lights were blown out and 
everything kept as quiet as possible so as to at- 
tract no attention. Old residents say that though 
a Mexican with a crowbar and bataya might steal 
an axe or a piece of meat, he was never known 
to commit an outrage. The fact that half a dozen 
white, men would go to a Mexican camp of ten times 
their number and disarm them does not prove them 
very belligerent. It would seem that most of the 
crimes, and they were many, committed by the Mex- 
ican population may be justly charged to the cabal- 
leros. who were generally gamblers and horse-thieves, 
or worse; who never worked for themselves but 
appropriated the results of others' industry, not hes- 
itating at murder when necessary to accomplish their 
object. 



c li a PT ER X X. 

POLITICAL PARTIES IN 1855. 

Success of the American Party — List of Officers Elected — 
Rivalry Between Towns — Financial Matters — Efforts to 
Suppress Gambling — Political Parties in 185G — Names of 
Officers Elected — Calaveras Indebtedness — Tax Levy in 1857 
— Disbursements for 1857 — Table of Receipts for all Moneys 
up to 1857 — Political Parties in 18.57 — Officers Elected in 
1857 — Officers Elected 1858 — Tax Levy 1858 — Condition of 
Treasury — Financial Matters in 1859 — Condition of Polit- 
ical Parties. 

The Know-Nothing, or Native American Party, 
had become the most numerous of any. The almost 
annihilation of the Whig party in the Presidential 
contest of 1852, and the subsequent growth of the 
free soil element into a party, had left the Whigs to 
form new combinations. As the defeat of the Whigs 
was largely due to the solid, foreign Democratic 
vote, it is not strange that the defeated Whigs should 
organize to control or resist the foreign element. 
The epithet, " Know-Nothing," seems to have been 
first given in derision, from a constant assertion, " I 
know nothing about it," when the members were 
interrogated about the existence of such an organi- 
zation, and afterwards partially adopted, or, at 
least, quietly received by them. The object was a 
practical exclusion from power of the foreign ele- 
ment. It was urged that a few individuals often 
controlled hundreds of votes, and could be influ- 
enced by improper means; that the foreigners, as a 
rule, when they come to this country, had no knowl- 
edge of the nature of our institutions, and, from hav- 
ing been subjected to unjust laws in Europe, were 
instinctively opposed to all wholesome restraints; 
that the percentage of crimes and misdemeanors 
committed by the foreign element was much greater 
than their percentage of the population. The meet- 
ings, at first, wei-e held secretly, and nearly all the 
members of the Whig party, as well as many Dem- 
ocrats, were induced to act with them, so that until 
the day of the election, few men, not belonging to 
it, were aware of the extent of the organization, 
and were surprised to find the new party in posses- 
sion of nearly all the offices, from the Governor 
down. When the election was over, and conceal- 
ment no longer necessary, the members showed 
themselves in processions and public meetings. 

RIVALRY BETWEEN TOWNS. 

While Volcano was making some pretensions to 
superior size, the Sentinel at Jackson published, as 
amusing matter, the experience of a Jackson man 
in Volcano; the latter town being represented as so 
poverty-stricken, that a five-dollar piece had not 
been seen for weeks. When our Jackson friend was 
transacting some little business, he accidentally dis- 
played a ten-dollar piece. The sight was so unusual 
that a crowd immediately gathered around to 
admire and wonder. He good-naturedly allowed 
them to view and handle it, after which he treated, 
paid his bill, and left. The Sentinel made quite an 
amusing article of it; but the Volcano man was to 






flVERYSTABltB 




mF 






VOLCANO LIVERY STABLE , STAGE ■%* EXPRESS OFFICE. 

R.S-Hinksdn 8. Bro. ProP§ Volca no. Ama d or C° Gal, 




ST. GEORGE HOTEL. 

A. Petty, Prop., Volcano, Amador C° Cal. 



UTff.SA/rrOff & R£Y. B.F 



POLITICAL PARTIES IN 1856. 



89 



have his turn now. He acknowledged the story as 
true in most of the statements. " It was astonish- 
ing that a man coming from Jackson should have ten 
dollars, and still more unusual for a Jackson man to 
treat; but when he paid his bill before leaving, the 
astonishment of the people exceeded all bounds; 
they were still talking about it." 

LIST OF OFFICERS ELECTED IN 1855. 

Members of the Assembly — J. T. Farley, G. W. 
Wagner. 
Public Administrator — Wm. Jennings. 
School Commissioner — J. Goodin. 
County Surveyor — David Armstrong. 

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 

Township No. 1 — Bruce Husband, Hugh Robin- 
son. 

Township No. 2— J. W. D. Palmer, N. C. F. Lane. 

Township No. 3 — Ceo. L. Gale, N. Harding. 

Township No. 4— E. B. Howe, W. C. Bryant. 

Township No. 5— J. B. King, W. B. Caswell. 

Township No. 6 — E. R. Yates, James Burt. 

E. B. Howe and E. R. Yates were elected Associate 
Justices to act with M. W. Gordon. 

FINANCIAL. 



Jan. 1, 1855, the total amount of warrants 

issued since Sept ]4, 1854, was $41,144.78 

Warrants redeemed during same time .... 
Total amount outstanding. 



$41,041.29 
103.49 

Amount on hand $6, 117.07 

The second assessment for taxes was as follows: 

On personal and real property for county purposes, 
on each $100 , 50c. 

For school purposes, on each $100 10c. 

Support of indigent sick, " " 10c. 

Roads and highways, " " 2c. 

State purposes " " 60c— $1.32 

Poll-tax. 3.00 

On January 1, 1856, the Supervisors made the fol- 
lowing report: — 

Jan. 1, 1855, cash on hand $6,117.07 

Received during the year on account of prop- 
erty tax 3,068.24 

On account of poll tax 2,270.90 

Foreign miners' licenses 10,309.68 

County licenses 13,258.75 

Fees from Probate Court 61.50 

Sale of county property 120.00 

Refunded from State treasury 182. IS 

Total receipts for 1855 $35,957.67 

Total disbursements for 1855 34,741.10 



Balance on hand Jan. 1, 1856. 
Total amount of warrants issued 

Sept. 14, 1S54, to present 

Amount redeemed 



Outstanding . 



$1,216.57 

$41,144.78 
40,041.29 

$103.49 



EFFORTS TO SUPPRESS GAMBLING. 

At the February term, 1856, the Grand Jury made 

some effort to suppress gambling. Up to this date 

monte, faro, and other games were openly dealt in 

many places in the county, demoralizing a great 

many men. Laws against banking games had been 

passed a year or two previous, but it was thought to 
1-j 



be impossible to enforce them in the mountain towns. 
All laws are inoperative until sanctioned by public 
opinion; in this instance only a movement was 
needed to show that public gambling was not coun- 
tenanced by the community at large. The names of 
the Grand Jury that first grappled with this evil are 
S. G. Hand, who acted as foreman, John Lean, Thos. 
Luther, Elias Kratzer, Z. Crane, Wm. Cochran, Wm. 
Goode, David Beach, A. P. Clough, Samuel Folger, 
Heman Allen, Ellis Evans, Thomas Skidmore, 
Luther Morgan, Wm. Glenn, D. B. French, B. Dav- 
enport, J. H. Young, D. W. Aldrich, E. W. Rice, and 
S. M. Streeter. Several indictments were found 
against persons for gaming, also against the own- 
ers of houses permitting it. Though gambling never 
was entirely suppressed it was forced to retire from 
public sight. 

POLITICAL PARTIES IN 1856. 

Three parties made their appearance this season: 
The Democratic party, confident in strength from a 
sway of nearly a quarter of a century; the Know- 
Nothing, flushed with a recent victory; and the 
Republican, having nothing, with everything to hope 
for. The fact that the Republicans had carried sev- 
eral Eastern States with rapid increase of numbers 
everywhere, encouraged them to nominate a full 
county ticket. They first called a general meeting 
at Drytown on the 4th of October, met in mass meet- 
ing numbering about seventy-five, and nominated a 
full ticket. Col. Baker addressed the meeting in 
the evening and spoke afterwards at several places 
in the county. Some little disposition to mob out the 
Republicans was manifested in several places. At 
Yolcano the sign of the Republican club was torn 
down and destroyed and a notice served on Mahoney, 
the owner of the hall, that if the meetings were per- 
mitted his hall should be torn down. Leading Dem- 
ocrats hastened to disavow any countenance of the 
violent proceedings and assured the Republicans 
that they should not be molested again. At Lancha 
Plana, M. Frink, a candidate for the Assembly, was 
torn from the stand, though this was said to have 
been in consequence of remarks of a personal nature. 
The fact that mobbing a speaker, however obnoxious 
his sentiments are, is an argument generally in his 
favor, is well known and serves to keep the appear- 
ance of peace at least. 

The Know-Nothings held an imposing convention. 
J. T. Farley, flushed with the honors of Speaker of 
the Assembly, acted as president. A huge cannon 
was fired at intervals of a few minutes through the 
day, reminding the people for twenty miles around 
that the Know-Nothing Convention was in session. 

The Democratic ticket was elected, the Republi- 
cans casting a little over six hundred votes, or about 
one-sixth part of the entire vote. 

The vote for President was: Buchanan (Dem.), 
1784; Fillmore (K. N.), 1557; Fremont (Rep.), 657. 



90 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



OFFICERS ELECTED NOVEMBER, 1856. 

Assemblymen — Wm. M. Soawell, James Livermorc. 

Sheriff— W. J. Paugh. 

County Clerk— II. S. Hatch. 

District Attorney — S. B. Axtell. 

Treasurer — Ellis Evans. 

Assossor — II. A. Eichelberger. 

Public Administrator — J. B. King. 

County Surveyor — James Masterson. 

Coronor — A. B. Kibbe. 

SUPERVISORS. 

District No. 1 — J. G. Severance. 

District No. 2 — E. A. Kingsley 

District No. 3 — -J. A. Brown. 

Superintendent Common Schools — E.B. Mclntyre. 

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 

Township No. 1 — L. N. Ketchum, Bruce Husband. 
Township No. 2— N. C. F. Lane, J. W. D. Palmer. 
Township No. 3 — A. M. Ballard, Geo. Monkton. 
Township No. 4 — E. B. Mclntyre, D. R. Gans. 
Township No. 5 — C. N. W. Hinkson, G. W. Haynes. 
Township No. 6 — Stephen Kendall, I. F. Ostrom. 

CALAVERAS INDEBTEDNESS. 

When Amador was set off from Calaveras a pro- 
vision was made that the new county should assume 
a just proportion of the common debt. As no 
especial methods of determining this amount was 
provided, the matter was neglected until Calaveras 
brought suit, January 27, 1857, against J. C. Ship- 
man, as Auditor of Amador county, to recognize the 
obligation. James H. Hardy was employed as a 
lawyer to defend Amador county, and was allowed 
one thousand dollars as a fee for his services. Feb- 
ruary 3d there is a minute to the effect that the 
Board adjourned to meet the Board of Calaveras 
county to effect an amicable arrangement. The 
records of the Board of Supervisors do not make 
mention of the matter again until the 7th of August 
following, when Alonzo Piatt and James F. Hubbard 
were appointed as a Commission to meet an equal 
number on the part of Calaveras county, to deter- 
mine the amount of the indebtedness. This confer- 
ence resulted in fixing the amount at twenty-six 
thousand five hundred and seventeen dollars and 
thirty-two cents. A warrant was issued for this 
amount, and, as Number 103, became famous in the 
financial history of the county as the source of eva- 
sions, injunctions and lawsuits. 

The Board of Supervisors ordered that one-half 
of the general fund should be set aside for the pay- 
ment of this warrant. From the records, it appears 
that an arrangement had been made with the Cala- 
veras authorities, that evidence of Calaveras indebt- 
edness, or " county scrip," might be applied in pay- 
ment of this debt. George Durham was appointed 
a broker, to buy up the scrip, sixty-five cents on the 
dollar being the price he was to be paid for it, " and 
no more." One thousand dollars was advanced to 



him, as capital to begin with, and directions made 
that ho should settle as often as once a month. J. 
C. Shipman, Alvinza Hayward, John C. White, Will- 
iam Sharp, ami Wesley Jackson, were his sureties 
for the faithful performance of the duties. It is to 
be regretted that the records of the Board of Super- 
visors are not more complete. The high price of 
ink, or some other freak of economj^, kept them 
from keeping a full account, and wo are obliged to 
write history out of hints and disjointed memoranda. 
The purchase of scrip does not seem to have been 
satisfactory, for suit was commenced against Dur- 
ham on account of the matter. There is a minute 
to the effect that the District Attorney be directed 
to suspend the suit against Durham, as long as M. 
W. Gordon should pay to the County Treasurer fifty 
dollars a month; that the stay of proceedings should 
cease whenever the said M. W. Gordon should neg- 
lect or refuse to pay the fifty dollars per month. 

TAX LEVY OF 1857. 

For county purposes, on each $100 50c. 

School purposes, " " 10c. 

Indigent sick, " " 20c. 

Calaveras Fund, " " 30c. 

State taxes, " " 70c— $1.80 

A poll-tax of $3.00 was ordered on account of roads, and the 
same also for State and county purposes. 

January 1, 1858, the Supervisors made the fol- 
lowing report: — 

Warrants issued during the year exclusive of the 

famous 103 for Calaveras indebtedness was $42,457.27 

Outstanding for previous year " 103,49 

$42,560.76 
Warrants redeemed during the time $35,078.40 

Warrants outstanding $ 7,482.36 

26,517.32 

Including Calaveras indebtedness - . .$33,999.68 

Inventory of county property. 

Delinquent taxes $ 5,881.40 

County jail and improvements 7,017.80 

*Court House and lot improvements 2,379.10 

Furniture of clerk's office 400.00 

Sheriff's and other offices. 270.00 

County hospital 200.00 

Total $16,148.30 

September 18, 1857, the Supervisors ordered the 
Treasurer to make no payment at all to S. L. McGee, 
the holder of warrant No. 103, drawn on account of 
the Calaveras indebtedness. From this item it 
would appear that McGee had become the owner of 
the warrant, and refused to take script on it. 

The funds set aside for the payment of this war- 
rant accumulated until they amounted, in January, 
1859, to $20,198.27, less $605.00, which had been 
allowed the outgoing Treasurer as percentage. 

This concatenation of awkward events was inau- 
gurated by J. G. Severance, E. A. Kingsley, and 
James A. Brown, acting as the Board of Supervisors. 

*The Court House having been donated by the town of Jack- 
son, only the improvements are estimated. 



POLITICAL PARTIES IN 1857. 



91 



ACCOUNTS ALLOWED PROM JANUARY 1, 1857, TO JAN- 
UARY 1, 1858. 



County Judge 

County Clerk and Auditor. 

District Attorney 

Associate Justices 

Assessor 

Sheriff. 

Supervisors 

Justice's Fees 

Constable's Fees 

Witnesses' Fees 

Jurors. 



Superintendent and Marshals Common Schools 

Hospital 

Officers of Election 

Repairs on Court House and Jail 

Stationery 

Scaffold and Execution of Cottle 

Attorneys' Fees in Criminal Cases 

P. M. Examinations and Taking Insane to Asylum , 

Attorneys' Fees in County Suits 

Supplies for Jail 

Printing 

Roads 

Taxes Refunded ■_ 

Miscellaneous 



Total. 



.$ 2,500 00 

. 3,104 53 

. 1,810 00 
874 00 

. 2,653 34 

. 7,406 22 

1,095 55 

624 10 

. 1,318 49 
113 50 

. 4,384 50 
5S1 00 

,. 4,336 61 
568 00 

. 1,550 92 
494 92 
100 00 
135 00 
484 30 

. 1,400 00 

275 00 

917 00 

12 25 

45 24 

224 80 

.$37,039 35 



Table Showing the Amounts of Money Received into the 
Treasury to 1857. 

COMPILED iBY F. MCBRIDE, THOMAS H. LOEHB, AND T. G. HOARD, 

SUPERVISORS. 



ON WHAT ACCOUNT. 


1854. 


1855. 


1856. 


1857. 


TOTAL. 




§7561 90 

6946 50 

6951 36 

2671 50 

380 10 

464 40 


9 7172 02 

14061 25 

24065 72 

4138 33 

569 35 

182 18 

61 50 

120 00 


* 9054 10 

14736 25 

18248 04 

3414 12 

357 20 

1848 44 

42 00 

100 00 

1821 99 

806 25 

161 24 

408 00 


§30144 77 

14232 62 

22944 16 

9234 85 

026 20 

1372 53 

53 00 


953932 79 


State and County Licenses 

Foreign Miners' Tax 

Poll-Tax 


50026 62 
72209 28 
19458 80 




1932 85 


Refunded from State 


3867 55 
156 50 


Sale of County Property. 
School-Tax 




220 U0 


5059 62 
5020 41 


9951 66 


Hospital 






5826 66 








161 24 








45 00 

5841 85 

872 00 

SO 38 


453 00 








5841 85 


Bridge and Ferry Licenses 




872 00 


45 00 
$25020 7l 




63 00 


197 38 


Total 


j50370 35 


851129 93 


$95586 89 


,$222108 93 



POLITICAL PARTIES IN 1857. 

Three tickets were put into the field as usual. 
The Democrats flushed with the recent Presidential 
victory, and strong in the possession of the public 
funds, the other two suffering from overwhelming 
defeats. B. JVI. Briggs, of the moribund Know-Noth- 
ing party, was the only one elected on that ticket 
in the county, and almost the only one in the State. 
In the Assembly, " he chewed the bitter cud of Know- 
nothingism, to the end, alone." There was little 
interest in the election outside of the scramble among 
the office-seekers. Every town had a full set of 
candidates for all the positions. 

The following list was elected: — 

State Senator — L. N. Ketchum. 

Assemblymen — E. M. Briggs, Homer King. 

County Surveyor— John E. Dicks. 

Superintendent Common Schools — E. B. Alclntyre. 

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 

Township No. 1 — J. M. Douglass, Geo. S. Smith. 
Township No. 2— J. T. Poe, J. W. D. Palmer. 
Township No. 3 — John Doble, Geo. Monkton. 
Township No. 4 — D. E. Gans, E. B. Mnlntyre. 



Township No. 5— C. N. K. Hinkson, E B. Styles. 
Township No. G. — Steve Kendall, Hugh Bell. 
Vote for Governor— J. B. Weller (Dem.), 1619; 
G. VV. Bowie (K. N.), 997; Ed. Stanley (Eep.), 492. 

OFFICERS ELECTED IN 1858. 

Assembly — W. VV. Cope, J. A. Eagan. 

County Judge — M. W. Gordon. 

Sheriff— W. J. Paugh. 

County Clerk— T. M. Pawling. 

District Attorney — J. G. Severance. 

Treasurer — C. A. Eagrave. 

Assessor — F. P. Smith. 

Public Administrator — E. Gallagher. 

Superintendent Common Schools — H. H. Eheese. 

Coroner — John Vogan. 

Surveyor — Albert Moore. 

SUPERVISORS. 

District No. 1— E. D. Stiles. 
District No. 2 — Eobert Stewart. 
District No. 3— Jacob Einzee. 

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 

Township No. 1— Geo. S. Smith, J. W. Hutchins. 
Township No. 2— C. English, J. C. Wicker. 
Township No. 3— John Doble, A. M. Ballard. 
Township No. 4— E. B. Howe, D. E. Gans. 
Township No. 5— E. B. Stiles, C. N. W. Hinkson. 
Township No. 6 — Hugh Bell, B. Nichols. 
Township No. 7 — Sam Eoree, D. Cartmill. 

RATES OF TAXES FOR 1858. 

For State purposes on each 
County purposes, 
School purposes, 
Indigent Sick, 
Calaveras Fund, 
Board purposes, 



50c. 

50c. 

" " 10c. 

" " 20c. 

" " 30c. 

" " 15c— $1.75 

Also $ 3.00 poll-tax for roads, and also the same for general pur- 
poses. 

There 



is no report found of the state of the 
finances at the end of the year. Ellis Evans, the 
County Treasurer, reports the total indebtedness at 
$24,409.43. This must have been a balance, as the 
famous warrant, No. 103, still remained with no por- 
tion paid, with accumulated interest. On the first 
of July, in his second quarterly report, he fixes the 
amount of outstanding warrants at $46,717.77. 

There was in the Treasury credited to the 

General Fund $ 1,799.02 

Hospital Fund 305.73 

RoadFund 74.84 

Calaveras Fund 14,897.45— $17,077.45 

Total indebtedness $29,640.63 

At the end of 1858 the Calaveras Fund had accu- 
mulated until it amounted to $20,198.27, which, less 
3 per cent., $605.94, Treasurer's commission, was 
turned over to the incoming Treasurer, C. A. 
Lagrave. 

FINANCIAL MATTERS IN 1859. 

Rates of taxes for State purposes on each $100 60c. 

County purposes, " " 50c. 

School purposes, " " 10c. 

Calaveras Debt, " " 20c. 

Road purposes, " " 5c. — $1.45 

Poll-tax, $3.00 for roads, and the same for general purposes. 



02 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



During the first quarter of the year there was paid on the Cal- 
averas debt (warrant 103) the sum of $19,005.50, leaving due the 
sum of $19,577.75, of which sum $9,281.05 was interest. 

On the 7th of November, Treasurer Lagrave reported the 
county debt, exclusive of warrant 103, 'at $6,644.18; Calaveras 
debt, $9,109.17; making a total of $15,753.35. 

This estimate was made after deducting moneys on hand 
which were as follows: — 

General Fund $7,168.91 

Hospital Fund $2,248.82 

School Fund 2,348.42 

Road Fund 567.72 

Calaveras Fund 3,759.40— $16,091.27 

DISBURSEMENTS FROM JULY 1, 1858, TO AUG. 1, 1859. 



Salary of County Judge $ 

County Clerk and Auditor 

District Attorney, salary and fees 

Associate Justices 

Assessor 

Sheriff fees in criminal cases $4,1S9.95 

" boarding prisoners 3,426.50 

" jailor and assistant 1,886.00- 

Supervisors per diem and mileage 

Hospital expenses and burials 

Officers of election 

Supplies for Court House and jail 

Stationery 

Attorneys' fees in criminal cases 

Printing 

Road purposes 

Inquests 

Interpreting 

Collecting county licenses extra per cent. . . . 

Deficiences in gold-dust 

Miscellaneous expenses 



2,499.96 
3,231.73 
2,175.00 
726.00 
2,880.00 



-9,502.45 

1,063.05 

5,596.57 

561,00 

1,387.07 

684.63 

884.95 

1,385.00 

1,367.02 

298.60 

98.00 

129.47 

156.25- 

1,303.19 



Total warrants issued $43,995.86 

The interest on the Calaveras debt had accumulated to 
$9,281.05, making the whole debt $35,798.37 before any payment 
was made thereon. 

CONDITION OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 

With the close of the election of 1857, the Know- 
Nothing party ceased to be a formidable element in 
politics. The leaders, generally, having been promi- 
nent members of the defunct Whig party, now found 
little difficulty in falling into the ranks of their ancient 
foemen, the Democrats. Early in the season of 
1857, a number of prominent Know-Nothings, J. O. 
Goodwin of Yuba, and James T. Farley of Amador, 
being of the number, agreed that, in view of the 
breaking up of old parties, and the formation of new 
parties in the East, and the expressed sentiments of 
President Buchanan in regard to some of the objects 
sought by the American party, it was not necessary 
to continue the organization. Farley became a 
member of the party, working in the ranks, until, 
as he was wont to say, he had been forgiven. R. 
M. Briggs also trained with the Democrats until the 
Spring of 1861. W. W. Cope, D. W. Seaton, J. W. 
Bicknell, and others, old Whigs, also fell into 
the Democratic ranks. The Republican party was 
mostly made up of men who did not put themselves 
forward for office. A lawyer was not often to be 
found in their ranks, occasioning some trouble to 
find a suitable candidate for District Attorney. 
Hearing some Republicans lamenting the want of 
a suitable man in their ranks to run for attorney, 
D. W. Seaton remarked: "Never mind. You will 
have lawyers enough on your side when you come 
to a majority." During the first four years of the 
organization, it was in a hopeless minority, with 



few politicians or orators to meet the attacks of 
ridicule and sarcasm, always given to the hindmost 
in the race. 

With the breaking up of the Know-Nothing party, 
and the affiliation of most of the members with the 
Democratic party, came the distinction "Lecompton" 
and "Anti-Lecompton," growing out of the attempt 
of Northern and Southern men to colonize the Terri- 
tory of Kansas, and bring it in as a free or slave 
State; one wing of the Democratic party favoring, 
and the other opposing the admission of Kansas 
with the Lecompton Constitution, which established 
slavery. 

The vote for Governor, stood as follows: Latham 
(Democrat), 2,023; John Curry (Anti-Lecompton), 
985; Stanford (Republican), 232. 

OFFICERS ELECTED IN 1859. 

State Senator — J. A. Eagan. 

Assemblymen — P. C. Johnson, J. H. Bowman. 

Coroner — J. C. Shepherd. 

SUPERVISOR. 

District No. 1 — C. Y. Hammond. 

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 

Township No. 1— J. W. Hutchins, G. S. Smith. 

Township No. 2 — Chas. English, J. A. Peters. 

Township No. 3— John Doble, S. S. Hartram. 

Township No. 4— D. R. Gans, H. Wood. 

Township No. 5— C. N. W. Hinkson, R. C. Brown. 

Township No. 6— H. Bell, B. Nichols. 

Township No. 7 — Jacob Emminger, Sam Loree. 

About this time the office of Supervisor was made of 
three years duration and the elections so arranged 
among the districts that one new member should be 
elected each year. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



AMADOR COUNTY AT THE BEGINNING OF 1860. 

County Officers — Financial Situation — Political Parties — First 
Appearance of R. Burnell — First Appearance of Tom Fitch 
— Officers Elected in 1860 — Amador Wagon Road Voted 
On — Names of Amador Mountaineers — Financial Affairs in 
1861 — Calaveras Indebtedness Denied — Enormous Profits 
of Officers — Political Parties in 1861 — The Amador Wagon 
Project Renewed — Vote on the Project, May 10, 1862 — 
Rates of Toll — Impeachment of James H. Hardy — Political 
Parties in 1S62 — Great Fire in Jackson — Petition of M. W. 
Gordon — Supervisors Order the Building of a Court House 
— Political Parties in 1 863 — French Bar Affair — Officers 
Elected in 1863 — General Vote — Political Parties in 1S64 — 
Vote of 1864 — Financial Matters — Political Parties in 1865 
— Arrest of Hall and Penry — Election Returns by Precincts, 
1865 — Seaton's Defection — Counting the Votes — Clinton 
Vote— List of Officers Elected in 1S65— Death of G. W. 
Seaton, and Election of A. H. Rose, his Successor — Finan- 
cial Matters in 1865. 

Up to this period, which seems a natural point in 
time for a review, Amador county met with unre- 
mitting prosperity. The placers were yielding 
undiminished sums; the quartz mines were begin- 
ning to show their inexhaustible treasures; agricul- 
ture had assumed a permanent and profitable 



\. ! ,'- - BsjL .;: 




RESIDENCE, RANCH »»» ORCHARD ** j. W. VI LETT, Ione Valley, Amador county, cal. 



ar.v. > 




RESIDENCE •* J. M EEHAN, 

JACKSON, AMADOR COUNTY, CAL. 



UTH 8KITTON* fteK S F 



AT THE BEGINNING OF 1860. 



93 



character; schools were established, and in working 
condition; churches, and other beneficiary institu- 
tions were prosperous, proving that society was being- 
built on a healthy basis; and, last though not least, 
the county finances had been generally economically 
managed, so that, notwithstanding the inevitable 
expenses of organization and commencing a govern- 
ment, moderate taxes were sufficient to liquidate all 
expenses. According to the Assessor's report there 
were fifteen saw-mills cutting 11,500.000 feet of 
lumber per year; thirty-two quartz-mills crushing 
yearly 61,000 tons of quartz; six hundred miles of 
main canal, besides distributors; 10,000 acres of cul- 
tivated land, yielding 6,000 tons of hay, 34,800 
bushels of wheat, 46,000 of barley, 28,000 of corn, 
besides other produce. There were nearly 10,000 
head of cattle, 1,700 head of horses, 6,000 swine, 
60,000 fruit trees, and 300,000 grape vines. 

This condition of affairs would justify a hope that 
prosperity might continue; but the failure of the 
placer mines, disastrous fires, injudicious manage- 
ment of county finances, with unfortunate national 
affairs, so changed the current of events, that 
Amador came near taking her place among the 
bankrupt counties of California. 

January 1, 1860, found the following persons in 
office: — . 

District Judge — Chas. Creanor. 

County Judge — M. W. Gordon. 

District Attorney — J. G. Severance. 

County Clerk and Eecorder — T. M. Pawling. 

Sheriff— W. J. Paugh. 

Treasurer — C. A. La-Grave. 

Supervisors — District No. 1, E. D. Stiles; District 
No. 2, Eobert Stewart; District No. 3, J. Linzee. 

February 6, 1860, the Supervisors allowed J. C. 
Shipman one hundred and sixty dollars for acting as 
Clerk of the Board of Supervisors for twenty days, 
also seventy-eight dollars for acting as Clerk of the 
Board of Equalization. These allowances seem but 
the entering wedge to other and more extravagant 
appropriations, which followed in the course of a 
few years. 

FINANCES. 

Tax levy for 1860, adopted February 9th. 

For State purposes, on each §100 60c. 

County " " " 50c. 

School " '' " 10c. 

Indigent Sick, «' " 20c. 

Calaveras indebtedness, on each §100 30c. 

Road Fund " " oc- $1.75 

In the following report of the indebtedness of the 
county the interest seems to have been omitted: — 

May 1, 1860— 

Warrants outstanding on General Fund. $11, 581. 44 

" Calaveras " 10,797.57— $22,379.01 
Cash on hand — ■ 

General Fund $2,990.36 

Hospital " .36 

School " 1,797.23 

Road " 19.80 

Due from Sacramento County 426.85 

Calaveras " 94.38 

State to Hospital Fund 156.6S— $ 5,485.66 



On the 7th of November previous, the Calaveras debt was 
estimated at $19,577.75, of which sum $9,281.05 was for interest. 

July 7, 1860, F. Eichling, Geo. L. Gale, and D. L 
Triplett, appointed a commission, by Board of Super, 
visors, to purchase a site for hospital grounds; which 
was done, for the price of sixteen hundred dollars. 
The erection of a suitable building on this tract 
commenced a series of debts which hung over the 
tax-payers for the next twenty years. 

REPORT NOVEMBER 5, 1860. 

Calaveras indebtedness, excluding interest $10,0S6.05 

Other " " " 12,249.51 



Total $22,335.56 

Cash on hand — 

Calaveras Fund $4,108.05 

General " 7,907.47 

Hospital " 2,575.98 

Road " 684.56 

Due from Sacramento county 2,120.00 

" Calaveras " 116.00 



Total $17,512.06 

Total debt, exclusive of interest, and less the amount in 

the treasury $,823,504 

This method of making reports was not well cal- 
culated to give the people any correct idea of the 
state of the finances. The interest on warrant 103 
alone, now amounted to twenty thousand dollars or 
more; much of it was due, having accumulated 
to upwards of ten thousand dollars before any por- 
tion of principal or interest was paid. 

The Supervisors, beginning with September 3d 
were : — 

District No. 1 — C. Y. Hammond. 

District No. 2 — E. Stewart. 

District No. 3— Geo. Mc Williams. 

The latter taking his seat September 3d, succeed- 
ing J. Linzee. 

POLITICAL PARTIES IN 1860. 

Some of the waves raised by the political storm that 
was raging in the Eastern States began to be felt in 
California. The prospect of carrying the Presiden- 
tial election and sharing the official patronage 
induced the Bepublicans to put forth greater efforts, 
and for the first time in the history of the party, it 
looked possible to carry some of the county offices. 
The Democratic party seemed to be disintegrating, 
having divided into the Douglass and Breckenridge 
factions, while members of the old Whig party, con- 
fident in their principles, thought to rally round 
them all the conservative elements and quiet the 
storm which threatened to engulf the nation. There 
are some questions that are so positive in their 
nature as to admit of no compi'omise; all or nothing 
being the only terms of settlement. The Bepublicans 
took strong ground against the extension of slavery, 
though denying any thonght of interfering with it 
where it then existed. The Douglass Democrats 
wished to leave it to the Territories and States to 
determine for themselves Avhether slavery should or 
should not exist within their boundaries, thus exclud- 
ing the matter from Congressional action. The 
Breckenridge party contended that having been 



94 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



recognized by the Constitution us an element in the 
social compact of States, it could not bo excluded 
from the Territories either by National or Territorial 
legislation without manifest injustice to the States 
wherein slavery existed. Each party endeavored to 
prove that a true interpretation of the Constitution 
would justify the proposed measures of exclusion, rele- 
gation of the matter to the States and Territories, 
or general protection and recognition everywhere 
under the flag. Careful readers of the early history 
of the United States cannot fail to discover the ten- 
derness, evasion even,' with which the subject of 
slavery was treated. The word slavery had no 
mention in the Constitution, those opposed to it hop- 
ing that it would cease of itself; those in favor of it 
satisfied with its partial recognition. Able writers 
on political economy assert that Constitutions are 
growths of public opinion; that no constitutional 
enactments can stand long against overwhelming 
public sentiment; that the courts and government 
shape the enactment when they execute the law, and, 
that public sentiment establishes the government. 
Three large parties accused each other of trying to 
subvert the Constitution, each professing to see, in 
the success of either of the others, utter ruin and 
destruction. We shall see, as history progresses, the 
truth of the principles alluded to, for the meaning of 
the Constitution was eventually fixed at a cost of a 
million of lives and billions of money. 

First-class orators, as well as many who were 
not rated at all, traversed the country, not omitting 
Amador in their labors. Thousands of documents 
bearing on the question, were sent through the mails 
or circulated by means of committees. 

R. Burnell, afterwards conspicuous in Amador poli- 
tics, made his appearance for the first time. He was 
a lawyer by profession, from the central part of New 
York. Having accumulated considerable money by 
raising stock on the plains around Sacramento, he 
spent a Winter in the capital, took a notion to mingle 
in political affairs, and made Amador County a start- 
ing-point. He was a man of graceful presence, 
pleasing address, a fluent speaker, with a good train- 
ing in the New York school of politics, of which 
Martin Yan Buren was the best specimen and ideal, 
whose political gospel was " neither give nor take 
offense." He rapidly made his way upwards, being 
first elected to the Assembly, where he was elected 
Speaker, and afterwards two terms to the Senate. 
He was also a prominent candidate for Congress. 

FIRST APPEARANCE OF TOM FITCH. 

This celebrated orator was sent into the country 
to try his strength of wing in the woods and chap- 
arral. Though he had spoken once or twice on the 
steamer on which he was a passenger to this State, 
and again once or twice after landing, the general 
impression was that he was speaking a piece that 
some one had written for him. His appearance was 



boyish in the extreme. His plump and rather girlish 
face, his lips with the babyish Cupid's bow still giving 
them shape, and his extremely youthful appearance, 
(not over twenty at least), did not impress one at 
first sight, or give any indication of his oratorical 
powers. The first meeting at which he appeared 
was in lone. Very few had heard of him, and it was 
supposed that the State Central Committee had sent, 
as they often had done before, some troublesome 
aspirant for oratorical honors, where he would do the 
least harm. James M. Hanford, M. W. Belshaw and 
two or three local politicians were announced to 
speak, and confident in their strength, inquired of 
Fitch which part of the evening he would prefer, and 
also how much time he would like to occupy, for it 
was intended to give the boy a chance for success. He 
rather dignifiedly answered that he would be satis- 
fied with any arrangements that might be made; so 
he was generously allowed the closing speech! After 
the several speakers had plodded wearily through 
the evening, the President introduced Thomas Fitch. 
The writer of this, who was present, recollects well 
the shade of disgust that passed over the faces of 
the audience at the prospect of sitting out another 
hour of dullness. He bowed dignifiedly to the Pres- 
ident and audience. His boyish appearance was 
already gone, giving place to the ease and self-posses- 
sion born of conscious strength. He commenced 
with a few long, Ciceronian sentences, as stately and 
beautiful in structure as a Grecian temple, and what 
was more, he kept them up for a full hour, never 
faltering for a word, never missing a note in the lofty 
song which he commenced, winding up with a burst of 
eloquence in favor of universal freedom that Colonel 
Baker might have equaled, but never surpassed. 
There was none of the school-boy in the oration. 
The sentences, ponderous as they were, came out of 
his mouth as if propelled by an intellectual steam 
engine. Had the people seen a train of cars dragged 
by a single pony, going a hundred miles an hour, their 
astonishment could not have been greater. The fol- 
lowing night bespoke at Lancha Plana to a large 
audience, that had gathered, as much out of curiosity 
as anything else, to hear the prodigy. Those who 
had not heard him still contended that he must have 
repeated what had been written for him by some one 
else; but a circumstance occurred which set that 
question at rest. A few minutes before he ascended 
the stand the news came that Colonel Baker had 
been elected United States Senator for Oregon — 
Oregon, the home of Joe Lane, the immovable Dem- 
ocratic State! The subject was one worthy the 
power of an orator, and Fitch did it justice. " The 
waves of public opinion, sweeping a continent in their 
course, are rocking the strongest citadels of slavery." 
Those who came out of curiosity remained, entranced. 
Perhaps he was the only man who ever spoke in 
Amador county that would hold every one of his 
audience to the close. 

Though a born orator, of unsurpassed ability, his 



AT THE BEGINNING OF 1860. 



95 



moral qualities were not of corresponding great- 
ness. He sadly disappointed the hopes of his early 
admirers, and is now only a fourth rate lawyer. 

Among the prominent speakers engaged in this 
campaign was James H. Hardy, candidate for Judge 
of the Sixteenth Judicial District, who ably sup- 
ported the Breckenridge side of the question. 

The general vote was: Lincoln, 995; Douglass, 
1866; Breckenridge, 945; Bell, 178; total, 3984, being 
the largest vote ever polled in the county. 

OFFICERS ELECTED IN 1860. 

Judge of 16th Judicial District — J. H. Hardy. 

Assemblymen — R. Burnell, Thomas Horrell. 

Sheriff — B. Cosner. 

Clerk— J. W. Bicknell.* 

Treasurer — 0. A. LaGrave. 

District Attorney — J. Boot Turner. 

Assessor — F. McGrath. 

Bublic Administrator — E. Gallagher. 

Superintendent of Schools — Samuel Fage. 

Surveyor — J. M. Griffith. 

Coroner— W. E. Fifield. 

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 

Township No. 1— H. J. Bostwick, M. J. Little. 
Township No. 2— W. C. Pratt, Charles English. 
Township No. 3— J. M. Hanford, S. S. Hartram. 
Township No. 4 — Harvey Wood, D. R. Gans. 
Township No. 5— C. W. N. Hinkson, George W. 
Haines. 

Township No. 6— H.Bell, B. Nicholls. 
Township No. 7 — J. McMurren, S. H. Loree. 

AMADOR WAGON ROAD VOTED ON. 

The discovery of the Comstock mines gave an 
increased desire for the building of a wagon road 
to Carson valley. The Legislature, by an act ap- 
proved March 23, 1861, required the Board of Super- 
visors of Amador, to call a special election of the 
voters of Amador county to submit to them a pro- 
position to issue bonds of said county, not exceeding 
in the aggregate the sum of forty thousand dollars, to 
be expended in the construction of a wagon road, com- 
mencing at Antelope Springs, in Amador county, on 
the ridge dividing the waters of the Mokelumne and 
Cosumnes rivers, and following thence the best practi- 
cable route to Hope valley on the eastern slope of the 
Sierra Nevada Mountains, and for the purpose at the 
same time of electing one Road Commissioner in each 
Supervisor District of said county. 

The proposition was rejected by the following vote: 
For building the road, 1495; against, 1683. 

A year later the subject was revived and carried 
through. 



*J. W. Bicknell was nominated in the Convention by a bit of 
sharp practice. Alvinza Hay ward, a friend of Bicknell's, went 
around among the delegates, asking them to give the old gentleman 
a complimentary vote, saying that he could not get the nomi- 
nation, but it would please him to get a good vote. When 
the complimentary vote was counted, it was found to be the 
requisite number to nominate him. There was no chance to 
retreat; so the Convention bore the joke as well as they could. 



NAMES OF AMADOR MOUNTAINEERS, 

Enrolled 1861, for service on the plains, guai'ding 
the mail route to Fort Laramie: — 



Win. McMullen,Capt. 

D. B. Haskell, 1st. Lieut. 

R. M. Crandall, 2d. Lieut. 

John Parsons, Brev. Lieut. 

W. L. Rhynerson, 

J. M. Griffith, 

J. H. Bradley, 

A. Allen, 

W. R. McCormiek, 

C. H. Ashby, 

L. D. Winchester, 

Geo. Teas, 

John Ferguson, 

I.N. Swan, 

F. Brill, 

J. Johnson, 

P. H. Repp, 

John Morris, 

Isaac Perrin, 

W. S. Cooledge. 

Joseph Alyea, 

A. R. Martin, 

J. C. H. Wagner. 

[The publishers intended to furnish a list of all the 
volunteers who left the county, but were unable to 
get their names.] 

The Supervisors made the following report of finan- 
cial matters May 7, 1861: — 

Amounts of all warrants drawn on Treas- 
ury from Nov. 5, I860, to May 7, 1861, 
on General Fund $22,991.26 

Total receipts for same time exclusive of 

Calaveras and School Funds 31,366.81 

Total amount of indebtedness exclusive of 
interest on outstanding warrants and 
Calaveras debt 4,936.05 

Calaveras indebtedness 'including interest 
on same ." 5,769.69— $10,754.74 

Assets — County buildings and furniture. . 14,500.00 

Cash on hand including solvent debts . . 6,955.86— $21,455.86 

Above indebtedness. ... $10,701.06 



A. R. Abbott, 
John Davis, 
Joseph Willet, 
J. Dennis, 

F. Robjent, 
John Ennis, 
J. P. Ewing, 
Albert Moore, 

D. B. Trimble, 
J. Hall, 

T. J. Yager, 

B. J. Thompson, 
Geo. Monroe, 
John Evans, 

H. R. Brown, 
John Dickinson, 
T. H. Dickin, 
Chas. Walton, 
A. Carpenter, 
P. Brady, 

E. McCaugherty, 
W. Kelly, 



RATE OF TAXES FOR 1861. 



For State purposes on each $100. 
County purposes, " ' 

School purposes, " ' 

Indigent sick, " ' 

Calaveras debt, " ' 

Road purposes, " 

Also $6.00 poll-tax for State 



.60c. 
50c. 
.10c. 
.20c. 
.30c. 
. 5c — $1.75 



and County purposes. 
CALAVERAS INDEBTEDNESS DENIED. 

At a meeting of the Board of Supervisors, Decem- 
ber 26, 1861, the following proceedings were had: — 

"Whereas, By the quarterly financial report of 
the Auditor and Treasurer of Amador county, sub- 
mitted to the Board on the first Monday of Decem- 
ber, 1861, it appears that there was, upon that day, 
in the hands of said Treasurer, the sum of six thou- 
sand one hundred and fifty-five dollars and four 
cents, credited to a fund known as the Calaveras 
County Fund; and, 

"Whereas, It is the opinion of this Board that 
the object for which said fund was created, no longer 
exists (the debt formerly due from Amador county 
to said Calaveras county, having been fully paid). 

" It is therefore ordered that the said Treasurer of 
Amador county be, and is hereby directed, to trans- 



96 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



for from the said Calaveras County Fund to the Gen 
oral Fund <>l' Amador county, the sum of six I Imusand 
dollars, and also that all such num or sums as may- 
be paid into the said Treasury after the said first 
Monday of December, 1861, upon said Calaveras 
County Fund, be credited to the General Fund of 
Amador county." 

From the records of the Board of Supervisors, it 
appears that on the second day of December, 1861 
they entered into an agreement with J. Foot Tur- 
ner, by which the said Turner agreed to evade or 
satisfy the payment on the part of Amador county, 
of the sum of six thousand one hundred and fifty- 
eight dollars, then on hand and in the treasury, due 
to the county of Calaveras as a part of the Cala- 
veras indebtedness on warrant 103, which he seems 
to have done, as he was allowed the commission of 
ten per cent, on the same, at a meeting of the Board 
September 1, 1862. . Subsequently, however, the mat^ 
ter came before the .District Court. In the suit 
of Beals, the holder of warrant No. 103, against the 
Supervisors of Amador county, in 1864, the records 
showed that a writ of mandamus was issued from 
the District Court, S. W. Brockway presiding, to 
the Board of Supervisors of Amador county, requir- 
ing them to levy a special tax for the payment of 
the balance of the Calaveras indebtedness, amount- 
ing to $7,556.16, in accordance with a law aj>proved 
April 27, 1855. The matter was appealed to the 
Supreme Court, where the decision of Judge Brock- 
way was confirmed. The amount of the Avarrant 
when drawn, was $26,517.32; up to 1865, $31,292.83 
had been paid on it when the county, by the advice 
of J. Foot Turner, refused to pay anything further. 
The judgment given by Brockway, $7,556.16, was 
avoided until it amounted to $11,000, making over 
$40,000 in all that was paid on the warrant, the 
costs, and attorneys' fees, swelling it to at least $50,- 
000, before the demand was settled. 

ENORMOUS PROFITS OF THE OFFICE-HOLDERS. 

It is said that the offices of Sheriff and County 
Clerk, were worth from fifteen to twenty thousand 
dollars per year. The latter was also Recorder of 
Deeds, and acted as the Clerk of the Board of Super- 
visors and Equalization; also, as Auditor of Accounts, 
for all of which he drew high pay. At a meeting of 
the Board of Supervisors, February 6, 1861, present, 
James H. Allen and George Mc Williams, it was 
ordered that the Auditor, J. W. Bicknell, be paid, as 
salary, two hundred and forty dollars per month, in 
quarterly installments; though October 9th, follow- 
ing, his salary was reduced to one hundred and sixty- 
five dollars per month. The following items from 
the records of the Board of Supervisors will show 
how the money went: — 

November 18, 1861— Allowed J. W. Bicknell $300 
for making assessment roll; also, $58 as Clerk to 
the Board of Equalization. 

October 3, 1862— $100 per month for signing poll- 
tax receipts, and foreign miners' licenses. 



October 3, L862 — (Page 435, Vol. B, minutes of 
Board of Supervisors.) Allowed J. W. Bicknell quar- 
terly salary as Auditor. $495; quarterly salary as 
Clerk of Board of Supervisors, $167.50. 

October 8th — Recording bonds of county officers, 
$153. 

November 8th — Allowed for acting as Clerk of 
Supervisors, $96. Each of the Board also allowed 
themselves, November 8, 1862, $48, as members of 
the Board of Equalization. 

July 1, 1861 — George F. Tripp, allowed fees in 
criminal cases, $2,155, a fourth claim — $810 — being 
rejected. For a few minutes' services as interpreter, 
involving no loss of time worth mentioning, $5.00 
was allowed. $24 was allowed for moving a person 
twelve miles. 

February 14, 1863 — Treasurer LaGrave allowed 
three per cent., amounting to $64, for apportioning 
School Fund. 

June 2, 1862 — C. Y. Hammond and other Super- 
visors allowed each $32 for services on the wagon- 
road election, which services should have been 
included in the ordinary duties of Supervisor. The 
Chairman was allowed $25 per month for signing 
road receipts. 

July 7, 1863 — Board of Supervisors allowed them- 
selves $8.00 per day for twenty-three days, for act- 
ing as members of the Board of Equalization. 

July 7, 1863 — Allowed fees to Sheriff for month of 
June, $549 53; also, for copying summons to Jurors, 
$339. 

March 3, 1863 — Allowed County Treasurer $143 
for signing licenses; same date, J. VV. Bicknell $330 
for acting as County Auditor. 

April 8, 1863 — Treasurer allowed $88.40 for appor- 
tioning School Fund; June 6th, for same, $119.34. 

January 6, 1863— For printing blank road receipts, 
$150. 

April 8, 1863— Allowed $251 for printing county 
blanks; also, June 2d, for same, $120. 

June 6, 1863 — Quarterly salary of $495 allowed 
J. W. Bicknell as Auditor. 

September 9 th — $285 rent allowed for county 
buildings for month of August. 

September 9, 1863— $627 allowed as Sheriff's fees 
for last month. 

September 21, 1863 — Supervisors allowed them- 
selves $8.00 a day as canvassers of the election 
returns. 

October 7, 1863— J. W. Bicknell allowed $200 for 
making out duplicate military list. 

December 16, 1863 — County Auditor allowed $495 
as quarter's salary. 

All services rendered seemed to be the subject for 
special fees. It is not strange that candidates 
should spend a thousand or two in trying to get a 
nomination when a nomination was equivalent to an 
election, or as much when the result of the election 
was doubtful. 

POLITICAL PARTIES IN 1861. 

Soon after the election of Lincoln, the old land- 
marks, which had stood for many years as guides to 
the various political crafts, went down out of sight. 
Men who had for a quarter of a century anchored to 
the Whig or Democratic doctrines, found themselves 
without soundings. Professed politicians, who were 
accustomed to weigh public opinion and move 
accordingly, were now unable to tell where the 
surging waters and contrary currents would permit 




RESIDENCE of Q. B. SPAGNO LI , JACKSON, AMADOR COUNTY, CAL. 




SPRINGDALE R ESI DENCE ^ D FARM of A- CAMIMETTI 
FOUR MILES N.E.of JAC KS ON, AMADOR COUNTY, CAL. 



UTNBWrrOf/Se'R£Y, S F- 



AT THE BEGINNING OF 1860. 



97 



secure anchorage. When everything is in confusion, 
it sometimes happens that a single commanding 
voice will turn a wavering crowd to its own course. 
The steady disruption of the Southern States, the 
boldness of their friends in California, who certainly 
evinced no fear of consequences, made the prospect 
of cutting out California from the Union, quite 
imminent. The newspapers, usually, are but the 
mouth-pieces of public sentiment. During this uncer- 
tain condition of affairs, the Ledger, which, since 
1S56, had been acting with the Democratic party, 
while speaking of the breaking off from the Union of 
Southern States, remarked: "For the pi-esent the 
interests of California seem to be, to remain with the old 
Union. 1 ' 

This sentiment prevailed to a great extent among 
the politicians. Among the first to raise the alarm 
of danger, was E. M. Briggs, a Douglass Democrat, 
who called public meetings in different parts of the 
county, and proclaimed to the people the designs of 
some of the ultra-Breckenridge Democrats to carry 
California out of the Union. He made speeches in 
his peculiar style of oratory, in several of the larger 
towns; introduced strong Union resolutions, with no 
uncertain sound, which were usually adopted. At 



lone he was met with a solid Union club of one 
hundred, from Muletown, headed by the president, 
Jack Miller, who pledged his company to the main- 
tenance of the Union, though some of his political 
friends persuaded him afterwards that he was a little 
premature in his promises. There is no doubt that 
these demonstrations, made previous to the firing on, 
and surrender of, Fort Sumter, helped to shape 
public sentiment, so that when the time came for an 
expression of public opinion, it was overwhelmingly 
in favor of the perpetuity of the Union. The Fourth 
of July celebrations in the different towns of the 
county were hearty and enthusiastic — nearly the 
whole population participating. 

The Douglass Democratic Convention at Sacra- 
mento, which met to nominate a candidate for 
Governor, took strong Union grounds, denouncing 
hesitation as cowardice, and doubt as treason. 

The three parlies put forward full sets of candi- 
dates. All professed to be in favor of union. The 
Bepublicans favored the maintenance of the Union 
by prosecuting the war until all rebellion was crushed 
out, at whatever expense; the Douglass Democrats, by 
conducting the war according to the Constitution, 
with Democratic generals under a Democratic admin- 



ELECTION RETURNS BY PRECINCTS- 1861. 



PRECINCTS. 



Amador 

Arkansas 

Badger's Store. . . . 

Boston Store 

Buena Vista 

Butte City 

Clinton 

Dry town 

Fiddletown 

Foster's Ranch . . 

Forest Home 

Iowa Flat 

lone City 

Jackson 

Lancha Plana 

Martin's Ranch. . . 

Middle Bar 

Muletown 

New York Ranch. 

Rich Bar 

Pine Grove 

Putt's Bar. . . . 

Ranch 

Sutter Creek 

Upper Rancheria. . 

Volcano 

Willow Springs. . . 

White's Bar 

Yeomet 

French Bar 



GOVERNOR. 



LT. GOVERNOR. 



11 
10 

16 

18 

23 

17 

27 

46 

45 

2 

17 

33 

117 

306 

61 

4 

7 

35 

15 

24 

33 

26 

28 

34 

22 

201 

34 



51 
1 
12 
11 
21 
28 
53 
14 
101 
14 

"\2 
66 
97 
38 

8 

12 

8 



W 



73 
11 
25 

ii 

45 

8 
68 
73 
16 
32 

8 

128 

117 

48 

4 
25 

4 
2] 

9 
27 
1 

35 

1S6 

39 

236 

6 
15 

7 

1 



22 
10 
14 
18 
25 
21 
26 
48 
46 
3 
20 
33 

131 

232 
62 
6 
8 
35 
30 
25 
36 
24 
33 

112 
21 

236 
35 



50 

1 

14 

11 
22 
28 
53 
14 
101 
14 

i2 

67 
97 

3S 

7 

12 

8 

"& 

2i 

84 

55 

100 



2 22 
43 1 



64 

11 

. 25 

i2 

42 

9 

64 

71 

15 

29 

8 

112 

103 

47 

2 

24 

4 

6 

8 

25 

20 

30 

106 

38 

195 

5 

15 
9 
1 



Totals 1258 827 1299 14481838 1099 1487 1478 841 844 1063 1058 8 43 

IB ~ 



MEMBERS OF CONGRESS. 



23 

10 

14 
18 
26 
23 
26 
49 
48 
4 
20 
30 

139 

328 
67 
5 
8 
37 
31 
25 
36 
26 
33 

113 
25 

241 
37 



10 
14 
18 
25 
22 
26 
49 
46 
4 
20 
30 

136 

328 

66 

6 

8 

37 
30 
25 
36 
25 
31 

112 
25 

241 
36 



51 
1 
14 
11 
22 
28 
53 
15 
102 
14 

i2 
66 

98 
38 

7 



6 



21 
84 
54 

102 



51 
1 
14 
11 
22 
28 
53 
15 
102 
14 

i2 

66 
98 
38 



12 



6 



21 

84 

55 

101 

1 



12 

40 

9 

63 

72 

15 

29 

8 

106 

97 

42 

3 

24 

2 

6 

8 

25 

18 

30 

103 

35 

189 

3 

15 

8 

1 



11 
41 

9 

62 

68 

15 

29 

8 

109 

96 

42 

2 

24 

2 

6 

8 

24 

19 

27 

107 

35 

189 

3 

15 

S 

1 



29 

8 

109 

62 
5 
2 

19 

9 



8 
24 
18 
26 
72 
35 
179 
3 
15 



26 



ASSEMBLYMEN. 



18 
12 
17 
9 
24 
20 
17 
81 
48 
5 
18 
30 

111 

275 
58 
6 
1 
35 
29 
21 
35 
23 
32 

106 
41 

231 
29 



22 
11 
12 
18 
24 
30 
29 
49 
30 
3 
21 
33 

127 

329 
86 
6 
8 
36 
30 
25 
35 
24 
33 

110 
33 

233 
35 



4.S 



23 

84 

50 

105 



27 1370 1477 819 826 1024 1083 



52 



14 
11 
9 
48 
52 
13 
103 
14 



12 

64 

100 

31 



12 



21 

83 

50 

101 

1 



bd 



65 

9 

24 

11 
35 
9 
38 
63 
13 
27 
11 
1°7 

lis 

42 

2 

31 

2 

7 

7 

23 

19 

25 

99 

19 

188 

6 

15 

8 

1 



bd 



63 
10 

26 

13 
41 
10 
59 
83 
14 
28 

8 

112 

108 

40 

2 
24 

2 

5 
12 
24 
19 
27 
102 
26 
195 

6 
15 

8 

1 



98 



HISTORY OK AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



istration, believing thai genuine Dei tracy was a 

euro for all (he ills that could befall a State. The 
Breokenridge Democrats were supposed to be, to 
some extent, in sympathy with the Rebellion, but 
they confined their arguments mostly to charging 
the Administration with numerous faults, and a 
systematic violation of the Constitution. Axtell, 
Parley, and Eagan were able speakers, and repre- 
sented the Nation as having been hurried into a 
needless war by the infatuation of half-crazy 
fanatics, who, unless prevented, would ruin every- 
thing to give liberty to a race that was little above 
the beasts of the field in intellectual and moral devel- 
opment. It was their object generally to represent 
the South as the aggrieved party, that was willing, 
even anxious, to return to the Union when their 
rights were secured to them. Occasionally a speaker, 
like the Hon. A. B. Dibble, of Nevada, would take 
up the old story of negro equality, and draw a lively 

picture of a 

' ' Nisger in the bed 
With your sister wed." 

But the more thoughtful knew that two opposing 
civilizations had met in the " irrepressible conflict;" 
the one based on the rights of ail men to pursue 
their own substantial happiness; the other, on the 
customs which made privileged classes of kings, 
nobility, and hereditary masters, with the concom- 
itants of subjects and slaves. It must be confessed 
that in the history of the ages that have gone before, 
the privileged classes have usually won the field. 

The relative strength of the parties, as manifested 
by the vote for Governor, was: For Stanford (Bepub- 
lican), 1,299; Conness (Douglass Democrat), 1,258; 
McConnell (Breckenridge Democrat), 827. 

The following persons were elected in Amador 
county: — 

State Senator — R. Burn ell. 

Assemblymen — G. W. Seaton, VV. A. Waddell. 

Supervisor, District No. 3 — James H. Allen. 

JUSTICES O? THE PEACE. 

Township No. 1— J. G. High, G. S. Smith. 
Township No. 2 — Chas. English, J. A. Petei-s. 
Township No. 3 — H. T. Barnum, John Doble. 
Township No. 4— J. S. Hill, H. Wood. 
Township No. 5— B. C. Brown, E. B. Styles. 
Township No. 6 — Green Aden, B. Nichols. 
Township No. 7 — S. H. Loree, N. Yipon. 

AMADOR WAGON ROAD REVIVED. 

The increasing importance of the Nevada mines, 
the discovery of the veins at Markleeville, Silver 
City, and other places in the eastern part of Amador 
county, the transportation of enormous quantities 
of goods over the Placerville route, and the conse- 
quent prosperity of that portion of El Dorado county, 
traversed by the road, induced the friends of an 
Amador tramontane road, to make another effort. 
Accordingly, in answer to the requests of a large 
number of petitioners, the Legislature granted a 



second trial, specifying how the road should be built, 
in case the people voted for it. An election was 
hold May 10. 18(12. About sixty per cent, of the popu- 
lation voted, the measure being carried by less than 
half of the voters in the county. Towns along the 
proposed line of the road, or connected with it, 
voted nearly unanimously for it. Towns outside, 
like Lancha Plana, were equally opposed to it. The 
■ I ucstion was decided by a vote of 1,307 for, and 542 

against. 

VOTE BY PRECINCTS 
For or Against the Amador YVajjon Road, May 10, 1S62. 



PRECINCTS. 


ST*? 

t» o 

O CD 

8,5? 
ug. 

2 « 

w Pj 


Against the Road 
and Issuance of 




14 

117 

40 

34 

209 
18 
19 
30 
24 
50 
64 

416 
22 
21 


54 




29 




8 




1 








80 








5 


Fosters Ranch 






13 


Pine Grove 


1 


Volcano 


7 


Butte City 

Clinton 


9 

7 




126 


Q. Ran ch 


25 
26 
97 
15 
65 
1 


3 


New York Ranch . 


9 


Jackson 


101 


French Bar 


1 


lone City 


64 


Iowa Flat 


24 






Total - 


1307 


542 







A. J. Potter, Wm. Crangle, and W. C. Jennings 
were chosen a Board of Commissioners to build the 
road. 

The franchise for building this road was granted 
to 0. D. Burleson, James Tullock, E. B. Wooley, Geo. 
Johnson, B. M. Briggs, David Coblentz, M. Tynan, 
and Leroy Worden. The county was permitted, 
by Act of the Legislature, to assist these parties 
to the extent of twenty-five thousand dollars in 
bonds bearing twelve per cent, interest per annum, 
payable in one, two, three, four and five years from 
date. In case the county donated these bonds, the 
road was to be finished by the 1st of October of the 
same year, or the franchise was to be forfeited. The 
road was to be sixteen feet wide, and the maximum 
grade eighteen feet to the hundred. Tolls were per- 
mitted as follows: — 

For each loaded wagon, one dollar; for each ani- 
mal attached, twenty -five cents; loaded pack-ani- 
mals, each twenty -five cents; pleasure carriages 
and buggies, one dollar; empty freight wagons and 
unladen pack-animals, half rates. The tolls were to 
be reduced twenty per cent, at the end of five years. 

The route was divided into five sections, begin- 
ning at Antelope Springs, thence to Tragedy Springs, 
which formed section No. 1; thence to the crossing 



AT THE BEGINNING OF 1860. 



99 



of the outlet of Silver lake, which formed section 
No. 2; thence to Carson Spur, No. 3; to Summit lake, 
No. 4; and Hope valley, No. 5; the road at the latter 
place intersecting the Big Tree and Carson Valley 
road. The payment of the bonds was provided for 
by taxes as follows, levied on all property: — 

1862— Twenty-five cents on each $100. 

1863— Fifty cents on each $100. 

1864 — Forty-five cents on each $100. 

1865 — Forty cents on each $100. 

1866— Thirty -five on each $100. 

1867 — Thirty cents on each $100. 
When the vote was found to be in favor of the road, 
quite a rush was made to get favorable locations for 
public houses, and several fine buildings were erected 
at different points along the road. Saw-mills were con- 
structed with the expectation of supplying both the 
VV ashoe mines and the Sacramento market. On com- 
pletion of the road a stage line,,in connection with the 
Sacramento and Stockton lines, took passengers to 
Silver Lake and other way places, ^uite a trade 
sprang up over the road, the farmers carrying their 
fruit and produce to Washoe. The travel had to be 
abandoned as winter came, on account of the snow, 
which fell to the depth of from three to twenty feet, 
the last named being the usual depth at Silver Lake. 
The deep snow very often crushed the houses and 
destroyed the furniture. A fine house near Corral 
Flat, owned by Goldsworthy and Mayo, was de- 
stroyed in this way. The road did not answer the 
expectations of the public. The trade was not diverted 
from the Placerville road, and, on the completion of 
the railroad to Nevada, both roads fell into compara- 
tive disuse. The lower portion of the road is used 
to take lumber from the mountains, and, in Summer, 
a few visitors to Silver Lake give a little life to the 
higher portion. 

IMPEACHMENT OF JAMES H. HARD5T. 

Hardy was Judge of the Sixteenth Judicial District 
comprising the counties of Amador and Calaveras. 
He was a man of undisputed talents, great inde- 
pendence of character, amounting to recklessness. 
Like all men of that chai*acter, he took no middle 
course, was always in one extreme or the other, 
and made hosts of friends as well as enemies. Early 
in the contest he took the side of the South; often 
boasted of being a rebel, expressed the opinion that the 
Government had gone to hell, drank to the success 
of the Southern Confederacy, and conducted himself 
generally in a way hardly suitable to the position 
he occupied. Early in the session of the Legislature 
of 186^, Judge Campbell of Calaveras, prepared 
articles of impeachment, numbering some twenty or 
more, charging him with malfeasance in office on 
divers occasions; one specification being a charge 
of violating his oath of office in procuring the dis- 
charge of David S. Terry, on his trial for killing 
Broderick. The article alleged that a change of 
venue had been made to Marin county, where Hardy 



was holding Court; that, with his knowledge and 
consent, the clock had been put forward; that he 
opened Court at ten according to the clock, although 
it was much earlier by the true time; that the trial 
was hastily and indecently hurried through, with- 
out giving time to get the witnesses on the part of 
the State; that, although the important witnesses 
were then on the way from San Francisco, and, 
even in sight on the bay, being detained by con- 
trary winds (there then being no steam-ferry), ho 
refused to continue the Court, and ordered the jury 
in the absence of the witnesses, to find for the 
acquittal of Terry, setting him free. On this charge, 
the Assembly, sitting as a High Court of Impeach- 
ment, was evenly divided, standing eighteen to 
eighteen. On the charge of uttering disloyal senti- 
ments, and using language unbecoming his high posi- 
tion, he was found guilty, and suspended from per- 
forming the duties of the office. 

Judge W. H. Badgely, afterwards unanimously 
elected to the position, was appointed to fill the 
unexpired portion of the term. 

POLITICAL PARTIES IN 1862. 

The disruption of the Douglass Democracy, became 
apparent early in the season. The efforts put for- 
ward by the South to maintain the Confederacy, 
and, by the Administration to break it down, con- 
vinced the most skeptical that peace could come 
only by the utter defeat of one or the other. The 
Democracy now assumed a stronger tone. The 
Dispatch, their ably edited organ, did not hesitate 
to. avow its sympathy for the Bebellion, and kept in 
its columns the Kentucky resolutions of 1798, which 
held to the right of each State to judge of any infrac- 
tion of the compact by any other State, as well as 
the right to choose it own remedy therefor, mean- 
ing that each and every individual of the family 
of States had a right to step out, at its will or con- 
venience. About this time, the "Ivnights of the 
Golden Circle " were organized in different parts of 
the county. Their meetings were generally held 
in out-of-the-way places, and as quietly as possible. 
The object of the organization was probably made 
known to but few of the members even, the design 
being to have the material well in hand to use in 
case an opportunity offered, rather than the execu- 
tion of any well-digested pian of aiding the Eebeliion, 
or carrying the State of California out of the Union. 
A hundred and twenty-eight men had monthly 
meetings in the hills west of the Blue Bidge, near 
where Stony creek comes into Jackson creek; 
though, it is said, that a few meetings were held 
near Buena Vista. The organization was met by 
another, the "Loyal League," and also by the 
organization of the " Home Guards," who were sup- 
plied with guns and ammunition by the Govern- 
ment. The fact that the population of California 
was composed of people from all the States, ren- 
dered it quite certain that an insurrection would be 



KM) 



IIISToilY OF AMADOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



attended with ;i fearful destruction of life and prop- 
erty. Property is always a powerful conservator 
of the peace; and it was much harder to arouse the 
people into a war of ideas Mum it would have been 
ten years before, when the farms, residences, and 
valuable stores, had not yet made their appearance; 
and no insurrection occurred. 

When the Republican Convention met, a petition, 
signed by three hundred Douglass Democrats, was 
handed in, asking the Convention to drop the name 
"Republican," disorganize, and form a Union party. 
As there was nothing in a name, and the objects of 
the two were essentially the same, the request was 
acceded to. It will be remembered that the Doug- 
lass Democrats in the county, only a year before, 
had a much larger number of votes than the Breck- 
enridge Democrats; the relative numbers of the 
parties on the vote for Governor being for Stanford, 
1,299; Conness, 1,258; McConnel, 827. 

They had swept all the county offices by majori- 
ties from three to eight hundred. 

The vote for State Senator in 1861 was: For Bur- 
nell, 1,546; Farley, 1,029; Hanford, 753. 

Mr. Burnell joined the Union party. The move- 
ment seems to have been preconcerted throughout 
the State, as from this date the Douglass party dis- 
appeared. The Democratic party ceased to wear 
any qualifying prefix, and became, thenceforth, the 
"Simon Pure." The old and well-known war horses, 
Farley, Gordon, Axtell, a»d Eagan, still held their 
places as leaders in the ranks; but Porter and Briggs 
were now found with the Republicans. It will be 
seen that Wm. H. Badgely, who had been appointed 
to fill the unexpired term, made vacant by the 
impeachment of James H. Hardy, received the unani- 
mous vote of all parties. 

ELECTION RETURNS IN 1862. 
(Showing the relative standing of parties.) 

State Supt. Public Instruction. votes. 

John Swett (Rep.) 1497 

J. D. Stevenson (Dem.) . _ _ 1327 

O. P. Fitzerald (A. D.) 391 

District Judge. 
Wm. H. Badgely [vice Hardy impeached] 

received the entire vote of . ... 3067 

Assembly. 

A. B. Andrews (Dem.) 1563 

E. M. Simpson (Rep.) 1550 

Edward Gallagher (Dem.) 1496 

J. G. Severance (Rep.) 1524 

County Judge. 

M. W. Gordon (Dem.) 1595 

J. M. Porter (Rep.) 1560 

County Clerk. 

James "W. Bickn ell (Dem.) 1712 

C. C. Belding (Rep.) 1464 

County Recorder. 

A. Day (Dem.) 1692 

Isaiah Heaeock (Rep.) ..... 1501 

Sheriff. 

R. Cosner (Dem.) 1765 

S. F. Dexter (Rep.) 1431 



District Attorney. 

S. B. Axtell (Dem.) 

I!. M. Briggs ( Rep. I 

County Treasurer. 

F. McGrath (Dem.) 

Antonio Arata (Rep.) 

Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

Samuel Page (Dem.) - 

E. B. Mclntyre ( Rep.) 

Public Administrator. 

Geo. W. Beers (Dem.) 

Wm. Pitt (Rep.) 

Coroner. 

Louis Wentzel (Dem.) . 

J. Shumer (Rep.) 

Surveyor. 

Geo. Kress (Dem.) 

J. M. Griffith (Rep.) 

Supervisor, District No. 1. 
I. B. Gregory (Dem.) _ 

G. W. Withington (Rep.).. 

Township System. 



For. 



327 



Against. 



1657 
1505 

L609 
1 556 

1790 
1403 

1668 
1510 

1670 
1506 

1633 
1500 

769 
502 

2075 



THE GREAT FIRE 

On the 23d of August, 1862, will be more particu- 
larly described under the head of "Jackson," in the 
township histories. The principal interest at this 
point of our view is the destruction of the county 
buildings. It will be remembered that the town of 
Jackson donated the Court House, costing some ten 
thousand dollars, to the county, the jail being after- 
wards added at an expense of more than six thousand 
dollars. On the morning of the 24th, the county 
was without a place of meeting for the Courts. 
Rooms were hired in different places for transacting 
the county ^business, at high rates — one hundred 
dollars per month being paid for the use of a hall in 
which to hold Court. The offices of Sheriff, County 
Clerk, Treasurer, and District Attorney, were kept 
from necessity in inconvenient and improper places. 
These circumstances induced Judge Gordon to set 
forth the necessity of erecting county buildings, and 
the powers of the Supervisors in the premises, in the 
following petition: — 

PETITION OP M. W. GORDON. 

"To the Board of Supervisors, of Amador county, Cali- 
fornia: Your petitioner, a resident citizen and tax- 
payer of said county, respectfully represents to said 
Board, that, by article eleven, section five, of the 
Constitution of said State, the Legislature thereof 
"have power to provide for the election of a Board 
of Supervisors in each county; and that these Super- 
visors, shall jointly and individually perform such 
duties as may be prescribed by law." Your peti- 
tioner states, that, in pursuance of said law, the said 
Legislature, at its sixth session, by an Act approved 
March 20, 1855, did create and establish, in each of 
the counties of this State, a Board of Supervisors. 

" Your petitioner says, that, both by the said Con- 
stitutional provision and by the provisions of said 
law, the sole power over the property of each county, 
is given to the Board of Supervisors, and is pro- 
hibited to the Legislature of the State, the Legisla- 
ture having the power to provide only for the election 
of a Board of Supervisors, who shall perform such 
duties as may be prescribed by law. 



i 



"•'-•."-■>A 9 

. ■1 # 



lit 

*£, "4* ! 



"Jr *s 






& 

% 






■'v-:f:/:n 



II i ! 



f- 1 



•£ 




#v jp /te 







s^fcs&gsS&B "■■•■•■'.- si i . ■' "^ -rsv*' 




Residence and Ranch of JAMES W SHEALOR. 
Miles E. from Volcano, Amador County, Cal, 




Residence and Sawmill of F. M.WH1TM0RE. 
Antelope Creek .near Volcano, AmadorCdunty.Cal. 



AT THE BEGINNING OF 1860. 



101 



" Your petitioner says that amongst the duties pre- 
scribed by law, to be performed by said Board, 
(Wood's Digest, page 692, section 91), is the duty 
" To cause to be erected and furnished a Court House, 
jail, and such other public buildings as may be neces- 
sary, and to keep the 'same in repair." It is true, 
that section 16, page 696, says: " The Board of 
Supervisors shall not, for any purpose, contract debts 
or liabilities, except those fixed by, or in pursuance of 
law; and whenever debts or liabilities shall have been 
created, which, added to the salaries of county 
officers and other estimated liabilities fixed by law 
for the remainder of the year, will equal the revenue 
of the county for current expenses, no allowance 
whatever shall be made of any account; nor shall 
any expense be incurred other than the salaries and 
fees expressly prescribed by, or in pursuance of, the 
law." But it will be observed that the erection and 
furnishing of a Court House and jail are fixed bylaw 
in section 91, clause 11. 

L "Your petitioner says that the granting of the 
powers in said Act to the Board of Supervisors by 
the Legislature, and the specification of the duties 
to be performed by said Board excludes the Legis- 
lature from all power over the : airs of each and 
every county in the State, and f.xes those duties 
exclusively on the Board of Supe ,'isors. 

" Your petitioner says that, by article 514, section 
2, page 127, Wood's Digest, Jac son is the county 
seat of Amador county; and tnat, by article 670, 
section 59, page 154. the Court House must be situated 
at the county seat. 

" Your petitioner says that the Court House and 
county jail of Amador county was destroyed by fire 
On the 23d of August, 1862; that these public 
buildings are necessary for the conducting of 
the civil and criminal business of the county, 
and that the public business cannot be transacted 
without them; that, as already shown, it is the 
duty of the Board of Supervisors to proceed, as soon 
as practicable, to erect and furnish a Court House 
and jail at Jackson, for the use of said Amador 
county. 

"Your petitioner, therefore, moves the Honorable 
the Board of Supervisors of Amador county, on the 
3d of October, a. d. 1862, to hear this petition, 
to examine the law and the facts in said petition 
alleged; and upon the allegations herein being 
proved, that said Board will decide upon erecting, as 
soon as practicable, a Court House and county jail, on 
the site of the late Court House and jail, not to 
exceed in cost the sum of twenty thousand dollars. 

September 15, 1862. M. W. Gordon." 

Board of Supervisors — District No. 1, J. B. Greg- 
ory; District No. 2, H. B. Bishop; District No. 3, 
J. H. Allen. 

On the 4th of October the Supervisors invited pro- 
posals for the building of a Court House and jail, 
according to plans presented, but on opening the 
bids at the following session they were found too 
indefinite for acceptation, and new ones were called 
for, according to a plan presented by S. D. Mandell, 
architect of the M. E. Church of lone. It will be 
seen that during this year the debts were made 
which hung over the county for twenty years, 
bonds being issued for Amador wagon road, 
twenty-five thousand dollars; for Court House and 
jail an indefinite sum; for hospital, also uncertain. 



October 3d, the Commissioners reported the com- 
pletion of the wagon road, and the full amount of 
the bonds authorized to be issued was paid over to 
the contractors. 

POLITICAL PARTIES IN 1863. 

The doubtful result of the war, the loss of friends 
and relatives on one side or the other by nearly all, 
begat an ill-feeling between the two parties that, at 
times, looked like the forerunner of hostilities. The 
Ledger and Dispatch now flung terms of reproach, 
more true than polite, perhaps, but bitter and unre- 
lenting. It was difficult to tell whether national 
issues, personal animosity, or desire for office, was 
the greatest motive in the conduct of the campaign. 
Men would be found first on one side and then on 
the other, as one or the other of these motives pre- 
vailed, and, it would seem, buried all doubts by an 
increased or simulated enthusiasm for the side 
adopted. An old politician expressed the sentiment 
that each side accused the other of all kinds of venal- 
ity, and knew themselves guilty of it. Every tech- 
nicality was used to further the interests of the dif- 
ferent individuals. 

Some men were bold enough to throw technicali- 
ties to the winds, and fix up ballots by the hun- 
dred. The famous 

FRENCH BAR AFFAIR 

Occurred this season. At night the poll list num- 
bered twenty-six, but, during the counting, it 
swelled to one hundred and thirty-eight, with votes 
in the ballot-box to correspond. Jim Saultry was 
credited with planning and executing this brilliant 
raid on the enemy's ranks, which, however, failed to 
elect anybody. The names were said to have been 
taken from a Panama passenger list. 

The eastern part of the county, up among the 
pine trees, had rather uncertain boundaries, and 
pleasure parties, or others could, according to the 
existing law, get up a precinct almost anywhere, 
and shape or influence elections. When the tempta- 
tions for fraud were so great, and the opportunities 
so frequent, nothing less than divine strength would 
take the just course, and we have to look in century- 
old annals for politicians of that character. 

Complaints, that the collecting of taxes by the 
Sheriff gave too much importance to that office, hav- 
ing become general, the Legislature provided for 
township Assessors and Collectors; and for six years, 
from 1863 to 1869, the latter method was in use. 

At the election for Supervisors, held in 1863, cpiite 
a contest occurred as to the boundaries of Amador 
County in the vicinity of the Summit. The follow- 
ing extract from the Ledger will show the animus of 
the affair: — 

" Out of curiosity, however, and for the purpose of 
branding Copperhead demagogues with the eternal 
and ineffacable stamp of burning infamy and dis- 
grace which of light belongs to them, the recount 
was made, and that same count did disclose and fasten 



L02 



IIISTnllY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



upon the BO-called Democratic party of Amador 
county, the mosl disgraceful, hellish, diabolical, and 

deep <l\ ed villainous scheme to commit a crime upon 

the body politic thai ever disgraced the criminal 
calendars of the whole world. The hare thoughl of 

w hat he has done to the " tool " employed to execute 
it, must lie a coal of fire in his brain, an enraged 

adder in Ids heart. He must feel as if every hair of 
his bead were a serpent, like the hair of Eumenides, 
and his aids and abettors, the devil's scanty leavings, 
over whom, in their last hours, black despair shall 
sit, with carrion birds and scccsb owls hovering over 
their heads.' 

As the article does not give any clue to the crime, 
it may be explained that tampering with the votes 
was suspected. 

Having given a sample of the editorial style of 
the Ledger, the Dispatch must be equally favored. In 
the edition of June 4, 1864, referring to Lincoln, 
it said: — 

"Is it possible that this long-shanked, flop-eared, 
jimber-jawed, mule-countenanced, backwoods, rail- 
splitting boor is wiser, purer, more far-seeing, and 
understands better the powers of the Government 
than the great Father of his country, who presided 
over the deliberations of the Convention that made 
it?" 

OFFICERS ELECTED IN 1863. 

State Senator — E. Burnell. 

Members of Assembly — Wm. B. Ludlow, A. C. 
Brown. 

County Judge — J. Foot Turner. 

District Attorney — R. M. Briggs. 

County Clerk— E. S. Hall. 

Recorder — H. Wood. 

Sheriff— B. B. Redhead. 

Treasurer — Otto Walther. 

Surveyor — J. M. Griffith. 

Supt. Schools — D. Townscnd. 

Public Administrator — H. Robinson. 

Coroner— C. H. Kelly. 

From the minutes of the Board of Supervisors it 
appears that some doubt existed as to who was 
elected Supervisor from District No. 3. E. B. 
Woolley and E. A. Kingsley both appeared and 
claimed the seat. The latter had acted as Super- 
visor one month, and drawn pay therefor. On the 
22d of November, Bishop and Gregory recognized 
E. B. Woolley as the member, Kingsley filing a pro- 
test thereto. The latter appeared for several days as 
a claimant to the seat. November 6th, he was 
allowed thirty-seven dollars salary and mileage, 
Woolley retaining his position. 

GENERAL RESULT IN 1863. 

Governor. 

F. F. Low (Rep.) 2,245 

J. G. Downey (Dem.) 2,046 

Congress. 

T. B. Shannon (Rep.) 2,258 

Wm. Higby (Rep.) 2,256 

C. Cole (Rep.) 2,257 

John B. Weller (Dem.) 2,042 

John Bigler (Dem.) 2,043 



.V K. Whitesides (Dem.) 2,044 

County Ticket. 
Senator. 

i;. Burnell (Rep.) 2,165 

J.T. Farley (Dem.) 2,022 

Assemblymen. 
W. B. Ludlow i Rep.) 2,166 

A. C. Brown (Rep.) 2,182 

Woodburn (Dem.) 1,908 

Lea (Dem.). ..1,948 

Sheriff. 

B. B. Redhead (Rep.) 2,153 

R. Cosner (Dem.) 2,043 

County Clerk. 

E. S. Hall (Rep.) 2,152 

J. W. Bicknell (Dem.) 2,036 

Treasurer. 

Otto Walther (Rep.) 2,184 

Francis McGrath (Dem.) 2,008 

District Attorney. 

R. M. Briggs (Rep.) .2,210 

S. B. Axtell (Dem.) _ 1,869 

Public Administrator. 

H. Robinson (Rep.) . . 2,196 

Beers (Dem.) _ 2,009 

Surveyor. 

J. M. Griffith (Rep.) 2,185 

Kress (Dem.) 2,003 

This estimate includes the vote of the territory 
afterwards incorporated into the territory of Alpine. 

TOWNSHIP ELECTIONS, 1863. 

No. 1— John Burke, Collector; J. G. High, C. Y. 
Hammond, Justices of the Peace. 

No. 2 — J. Farnsworth, Collector; H. M. Roberts, 
Cbas. English, Justices of the Peace. 

No. 3— T. A. Goodwin, Collector; H. T. Barnum, 
J. H. Bradley, Justices of the Peace. 

No. 4— Thomas Dunlap, Collector; J. S. Hill, J. 
S. Porter, Justices of the Peace. 

No. 5— Chas. D. Smith, Collector; W. W. Swadley 
R. C. Brown, Justices of the Peace. 

No. 6— A. P. Wood, Collector; J. T. Phelps, B. 
Nichols, Justices of the Peace. 

No. 7— M. B. Oliver, Collector; W. H. Jones, Jacob 
Emminger, Justices of the Peace. 

No. 8— S. A. Hawkins, Collector; O. Bonney, J. 
B. Marshall, Justices of the Peace. 

No. 9— D. N. McBeth, Collector; Geo. J. Newman, 
J. C. Ransom, Justices of the Peace. 

TAXES FOR 1863 BY TOWNSHIPS. 

Township No. 1 .$11,349.11 

" 2 (for '63-' 64) 24,681.41 

" " 3 10,252.30 

" " 4 10,389.33 

" 5 6,674.34 

" 6 7,219.63 

" " 7 1.034.91 



TAXES ASSESSED FOR 1863. 



For State purposes, on each 
Federal Tax 
Eoad Fund 
School purposes 
Hospital " 
Sierra Wagon road 



.62c. 
.62c. 
.10c. 
.20c. 
.25c. 
.50c— $2.29 



AT THE BEGINNING OF 1860. 



103 



During this season the Court House, which was to 
cost $18,900, was swelled into a $50,000 structure, 
by the changes from the original plan, involving- 
stone basement and water tables, and stone steps 
in front and rear. 

March 3, 1863. — " Ordered (by the Supervisors) 
that the steps to the Court House be made of stone 
instead of brick, as specified in the original plan; 
also, that the balustrade of the steps be made of 
stone, and that the top step be made four feet 
wide." A special superintendent, Francis McGrath, 
was employed to measure and examine the work. 

Februaiy 3, 1864. — The Supervisors ordered a 
warrant to be drawn for $9,174.76, in favor of Mat. 
Canavan, assignee of Epley, Canavan, and Meloney, 
he having obtained a judgment in the District Court 
to that amount, as a balance due on the Court House 
contract. Farley and Armstrong, attorneys for the 
county, were allowed $500.00as fees. 

During 1863, townships eight and nine were 
organized east of the Sierra ISIevadas, out of terri- 
tory that was afterwards incorporated into Alpine 
county; also the election precincts of Silver Mount- 
ain, Mogul, Mineral City, and Markleeville. The 
uncertainty of the boundaries of these precincts, 
especially on the Calaveras side, was the source of 
much trouble until the final separation of the terri- 
tory from Amador county. Communication could 
only be maintained in the Summer months. In the 
Spring of 1864, the delegates attending the Conven- 
tions for nominating delegates to the Electoral Con- 
vention, came over by way of Placerville. The 
county of Alpine was created March 16, 1864, by 
Act of the Legislature, out of territory of El Dorado, 
Amador, and Calaveras. By this Act, the eastern 
boundary of Amador county was fixed at Hope 
valley, Kirkwood's house being just within Amador. 
Alpine county was to issue two warrants in favor 
of Amador, for $5,000 each, payable out of the gen- 
eral fund, and bearing interest at the rate of six 
per cent, per annum, payable in one and two years, 
as her part of the common debt. The two counties 
were made one district, for choosing Legislative 
officers. 

POLITICAL PARTIES IN 1864. 

Biennial instead of annual sessions of the Legis- 
lature having been established, and the election of 
members of the Legislature made to correspond in 
time with that of the county officers, there were no 
local interests to fan politics into the usual white 
heat; but the great questions of union and freedom, 
which had convulsed the nation for years, were still 
in abeyance and proved ample enough to arouse the 
highest feeling and bring out a full vote. The 
habitual leaders, having no inducements to accom- 
modate their sentiments to those of the public, were 
comparatively candid in expressing their opinions. 
At 'the Convention held to elect delegates to the 
Electoral State Convention, John Eagan, J. T. Farley, 
B. Stewart, Long Primer Hall, and A. H. Bose, 



opposed the prosecution of the war as unjust, uncon- 
stitutional, and inexpedient under any circumstances. 
The sentiment, afterwards incorporated into the 
National Democratic platform, that "four years of 
war having demonstrated the impossibility of con- 
quering the South, hostilities should cease, with a 
view of peaceable separation, if satisfactory terms 
of union could not be agreed upon," was generally 
advocated. M. W. Gordon, however, was opposed 
to acknowledging the independence of the Confed- 
eracy, under any circumstances, but believed the 
Union could be restored, only by employing Demo- 
cratic generals, under a Democratic Administration, 
with a Demoratic President. He would prefer 
Thomas H. Seymour, of Connecticut, for President, 
but would accept Grant, McClellan, or Sherman. 

These sentiments did not suit the majority of the 
Convention, but M. W. Gordon was a man of too 
much talent and ^influence to be slighted or left out 
in the cold, and J. T. Farley, with his usual skill and 
tact, advocated his having a place in the delegation. 
James Meehan, J.'T. Farley, M. W. Gordon, and B. 
Cosner, were sent from the county at large, and T. 

D. Wells, Lanning, Gerhard Sphon, Bobert Mc- 

Lellan, Dickinson, and J. W. Leslie, from the 

several townships. 

Those of our readers who are not old enough to 
remember the famous campaigns of " Tippecanoe 
and Tyler too," of 1840, may form some idea of that 
memorable affair, by the processions, bon-fires, and 
illuminations of this season. Every town had its 
turn, but, as usual in all such excitements, the active, 
the aggressive, swept the conservative away, and the 
Union demonstrations were the most brilliant and 
noisy. Long processions, Avith all trades and employ- 
ments in active operation, were the usual beginnings 
of a political meeting. Bail-splitting, tailoring, shoe- 
making, blacksmithing, weaving, printing, and every- 
thing that could be done on wheels, were made parts 
of the display. Abraham Lincoln split a lot of 
rails once, and the three or four stalwart men swine- 
ing the mauls, were sure to bring out the enthusiasm. 
There was a touch of the humorous in these dis- 
plays, which would have been enjoyable, but for the 
solemn fact, that a million of our noblest and best, 
were, at the moment, locked in a death struggle. 
The whole nation went on a frolic in 1840, but no 
such shadows of death rested on the people as in 
1864. But, as a politician expressed it, the party 
that could do the most of this work, would get the 
bulge, and it was done. 

vote of 1864. 

Presidential ticket — Bepublican, 1392; Demo- 
cratic, 1200. 

Congressional ticket — Higby (Bep.), 1390; Coffroth 
(Dem.), 1200. 

TOWNSHIP COLLECTORS AND JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 

Township No. 1 — John Burke, Collector; J. G. 
High and T. Masterson, Justices of the Peace. 



lOl' 



IIISTnKY OF AM Mini: COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Township No. 2— J. Farnsworth, Collector; J. 
Bo wen and < '. English, Justices of the Peace. 

Township No. 3 T. A G Iwin, Collector; II. T. 

Barnum ami II. Cook, Justices of the Peace. 

Township No. 4— I. N. Randolph, Collector; II. 
Wood and .1. S. Hill. Justices of the Peace. 

Township No. 5 — F. (orN.)King, Collector; .1. W. 
Morgan and \l. C. Brown Justices of the IVacc. 

Township No. 6— A. 1'. Wood, Collector; .1. W. 

Whitaker and B. Nichols, Justices of (lie Peace. 

Township No. 7— M. B. Oliver, Collector; R. 
Saunders and A. J. Lucas, .1 ustices of the Peace. 

At the judicial election in the Autumn of 1863, 
the average Republican majority was seven hundred, 
in a total vote of about three thousand. 

FINANCIAL MATTERS, 1864. 

The rate of taxation for all purposes, made May 
7th, was three dollars and twenty-five cents on each 
hundred dollars. 

On the 7th of June, the Treasurer reported out- 
standing wan-ants over and above sums in the 
Treasury to apply on General Fund, $74,159.42; on 
Sierra Wagon Eoad Fund, $15,125.00; on Eoad fund, 
81,407.35; making a total of $90,751.77. 

This estimate does not include interest, which 
would swell the amount to $100,000. The extrav- 
agance of the two previous years, laid a foundation 
for the permanent debt. 

The following December the amount of the debt, 

exclusive of interest, was estimated at $111,139.94. 

Before the taxes were collected, it was apparent that 

the levy was insufficient to meet current expenses, 

and a new schedule was made out, as follows: — 

For State purposes on each §100 92c 

County " " 200c 

" General Fund " " 100c 

" Hospital '•' " " 25c 

" School " " " . . . . 20c 

Sierra Nevada Wagon Road " " 45c 

Redemption Road Fund " " 10c— $4 92 

TAXES ASSESSED BY TOWNSHIPS. 

Township No. 1 $ 9,597.71 

" 2 (for 1863-64).. 24,681.41 

" " 3 4,947.48 

" 4 9,701.93 

" 5... 6,879.10 

" 6 6,844.26 

" 7 1,014.24 

" "8") afterwards | 9,627.72 

'• 9 j Alpine Co. j 3,030.46 

POLITICAL PARTIES IN 1S65. 

This, the last year of the bitter strife, witnessed 
the most exciting scenes of all. The year opened 
with the defeat of the rebel armies in all quarters, 
and soon saw the sui'render of the last of them E 
Whether from indiscreet rejoicing on the part of 
the Republicans, or embittered feelings on the part 
of the Democrats, or both, the Democratic news- 
papers became more bitter and vituperative than 
ever. Public opinion was in a highly excited con- 
dition in consequence, and when the neAvs of the 
assassination of Lincoln was flashed across the Conti- 



neiii. the danger of riots, and destruction of life, and 
property, was imminent. II uman nature is much the 
same the world over. it is but two hundred 
years since our ancestors thought it expedient and 
right to burn, slay, destroy, torture, and harass, all 

who differed with them, either religiously or politi- 
cally, and. notwithstanding all our boasted improve- 
ment, the desire to do so is still an active element 
in our characters. The animus of the parties may 
best be shown by extracts from the papers. 

Dispatch, March •">. 1865: — 

"The first act of Lincoln's administration was 
stained by falsehood, and shortly afterwards by 
deliberate, palpable, tongue-blistering, soul-damning 
perjury." * * * 

"The first officer under our Government, whose 
moral conduct should reflect the virtues and dignity 
of a great country, and be an example for all classes 
of people to imitate, stands before the world with 
the brand of perjury upon his brow!" 

" The rebels fi^ht for the priceless boon of liberty 
as did their fathers of the Revolution; the merce- 
naries of the federal army, for Government green- 
backs." 

March 12, 1805:— 

"If to sympathize with a brave and gallant peo- 
ple who are struggling to throw off the yoke of a 
merciless despot, * * * be secessionism, then we 
are secessionists." 

March 26, 1S65:— 

"Abraham Lincoln, the self-confessed perjurer; 
* * * the buffoon; the vulgar joker; the spiritu- 
alist; the abolitionist; the man who believes the 
negro his equal." 

ARREST OF L. P. HALL AND W. M. PENRY. 

A company of cavalry had been stationed in lone 
valley to eject settlers from the Arroyo Seco grant. 
After the assassination of Lincoln, persons were 
arrested in different parts of the State for sympathy 
with the Rebellion, or for treasonable expressions. 
The Dispatch had been one of the ablest and most 
outspoken Democratic papers in the State, and 
although not coming within the boundaries of giving 
" substantial aid and comfort to the enemy," it had 
advocated the right, if not the policy, of secession; 
bad eulogized the President and officers of the Con- 
federate States; had abused the Union President in 
severe terms, and had, in fact, been a magazine of 
Southern ideas and arguments, on Northern soil.. 
Some of the ablest articles in defense of the South bad 
come out in the Dispatch; in fact, there was no writer 
in the county, on the Union side of the question, 
that was a match for the editor of the Dispatch. It 
was quite natural that the wrath of the Union men 
should seek victims in the editors and writers of the 
paper, though it was not charged that it had ever 
sanctioned the assassination of Lincoln. On the 
morning of the 8th of May, about daylight, the 
persons mentioned awoke to find themselves sur- 
rounded by a troop of cavalry under the command 
of Captain Starr, acting presumably, under the com- 
mand of General McDowell, at San Francisco. The 
printing office was closed up, and two or three hours 




T— 



'-AvAV-' '...•■'/■'' 










, if"" > -■ 




^#'^^ 



Ikdl; 




AT THE BEGINNING OF 1860. 



10; 



afterwards the entire party left for Camp Jackson, in 
lone valley, our friends walking through the hot 
sand, with the thermometer at 100° in the shade. 
From thence they were taken in irons to Fort Alca- 
traz, where an eighteen-pound ball with chain, was 
attached to the legs of each man. They had the 
choice of hard labor on the works, under guard, or 
confinement in the sweat-box, and wisely chose the 
former. They were kept here, in company with 
other sympathizers, until about the middle of the 
following month, when peace, law, and order were 
so far established, that it was considered safe for 
them to be at large. It is said that neither of the 
men ever had the remotest suspicion of the cause of 
their incarceration ! 

In justice to the Dispatch and its conductors, it 
must be said that they picked up the cudgels of war- 
fare at the place where they dropped them at the 
time of the arrest, and when they resumed the pub- 
lication of the paper, which they did on the 23d of 
September following, it had lost none of the vigor 
which characterized it through the four years of the 
great Rebellion. 

L. P. Hall, who was arrested with Penry, was one 
of the most original men ever connected with the 
press in Amador county, or, perhaps, in the State. 
He was able to stand up to the case and set up his most 
vituperative articles without manuscript, a feat that 
few editors or printers are capable of. He was 
thoroughly aggressive in his character, and if he had 
been on " Southern Soil " at the time of the breaking 
out of the Rebellion, his temperament would have 
been as likely to have carried him into the ojtposition 
as anywhere. He was previously the editor of the 
Equal Rights Expositor, at Visalia, a paper as pro- 
nounced in its disloyal sentiments as the Dispatch. It 
was suppressed by the order of General McDowell, 
and the editor, and three others arrested with him, 
set free on taking the following oath: — 
State or California, 
County of Tulare. 

We, L. P. Hall, - of Tulare, State of 

California, Citizens of the United States, do solemnly 
swear that we will support the Constitution and Gov- 
ernment of the United States against all enemies, 
whether foreign or domestic, and that we will 
bear true faith and allegiance, and loyalty to the 
same, &\\y ordinance, resolution, or any Slate Con- 
vention or law of any Legislature to the contrary, 
notwithstanding; that we will give no aid, assistance 
or encouragement, by word or act, to any person or 
persons, or pretended Government, engaged in 
rebellion against the Government of the United 
States. And further, that we will do this with a 
full determination, pledge, and purpose, without 
any mental reservation whatsoever, so help us God. 
• (Signed) L. P. Hall, * 

Subscribed and sworn to before me, this fifth day of 
January, 1863. M. A. McLaughlin, 

Cop'ain 2d Cavalry, C . V., Commanding. 

Whatever difference of opinion may have existed 
with regard to his course as an editor, there was 
none with regard to his ability. 



John Gaver, of Sutter Creek, who had written 
many of the articles in the Dispatch, was arrested 
about the same time, and subjected to the same 
treatment. He was charged with rejoicing over the 
assassination, which, however, he denied, or asserted, 
that if he did, he was drunk, and unconscious of 
what he said. He was arrested on complaint of 
O. L. Chamberlain, F. Tibbetts, and T. Frakes. 

After the assassination of Lincoln, more than one 
Union meeting was held to consider the expediency 
of demolishing the Dispatch establishment, but better 
counsels prevailed. It is quite likely, however, that 
the arrest of Penry and Hall, and the suppression of 
the paper for awhile, saved the material from 
destruction. The excitement gradually wore away, 
and better feeling began to prevail. 

seaton's defection. 

There was a full set of county officers, as well as 
members of the Legislature, to elect, and the politi- 
cians set about arranging these matters. The national 
question having to some extent been settled, per- 
sonal ambitions and antipathies began to be more 
manifest. When the Republican Convention met, 
R. Burnell was nominated, after some opposition, as 
candidate for Senator. G. W. Seaton, who had been 
acting Avith the Republican party for years, arose 
and denounced Burnell as having tried to throw the 
State into the hands of the secessionists, by voting 
for giving the seat to a Democrat in a contested 
election case. This affair had happened some years 
before, and, if true, Burnell was only voting to 
decide who was elected, the politics of the man, 
properly, having nothing to do with his right to a 
seat. It is likely that personal antipathy was the 
ruling motive, for Mr. Seaton had supported Burnell 
in Convention and on the stump, after the occur- 
rence of the contested election case; but, at any 
rate, he announced his intention of defeating Mr. 
Burnell if it cost ten thousand dollars. As he had a 
very rich quartz vein just then to draw on for funds, 
the threat was very serious. He immediately 
announced himself as an independent candidate for 
Senator, and took the stump. The Democrats left 
the nomination for the Senatorship vacant, with the 
understanding that Seaton's name was to be used. 
The contest of course was very spirited, Seaton's 
gold mine being a powerful influence in his favor. 
It is not supposed that votes were directly pur- 
chased, but mone3 T , which Seaton had in abundance, 
would purchase fire-works, orators, music, gun-pow- 
der, and whisky, which certainly have the power of 
moving many people in their political opinions. 

It is generally believed too, that in the early days 
the Italian vote was practically purchasable, that 
is to say, that from fifteen hundred to twenty-five 
hundred dollars would buy the influence of one or 
two men. who would control the greater portion of 
the Italian vote, which was numerous enough to 
decide, in many cases, the election. (It is said, now, 



14 



; There were three other signatures. 



106 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



by thoso best acquainted with the Italians, that that 
condition no longer exists; that individual indepen- 
dence is becoming as common with them as with 
other nationalities.) When the contest was over, 
Soaton was elected. Amador and Alpine had 
remained one district for the election of members of 
the Legislature, Alpine being allowed one member 
and Amador the other three. O. F. Thornton and 
Harvey Lee were candidates by the respective 



parties, Republican and Democratic of Alpine 
county — Leo being elected. The following table of 
the returns will bo interesting, as not only showing 
the mimes and popularity of the different candidates, 
but also as showing the names of many precincts 
which were abolished when the registry law was 
established, this election being the last held under 
the old law : — 



ELECTION RETURNS BY PRECINCTS, SEPTEMBER 6, 1865. 



W 



c 



p- 




^ 








n> 








o 




* 


w 


P 


s= 



^ 



K 



a 



q 


<5 


A 


» 


w 


o 




o 


4 


T 




73 


4 




1 


S) 




B 

09 



S enators. 



Assemblymen . . . 

Sheriff 

County Clerk. . . . 

Recorder 

Treasurer 

District Attorney 
Supt. Schools. . . . 
Pub. Adminis'or. 

Surveyor 

Coroner 

Sup. Dist. No. 1. 



R. Buruell 

G. W. Seaton. . 
M. Frink 

0. F. Thornton 
Harvey Lee. 
A. C. Brown. 

1. N. Randolph 
R. Cosner. . . 
J. A. Robinson 
J. C. Shipman 
M. J. Goodrich 
A. C. Hinkson. 
Otto Walther.. 
L. Rabolt 

j R. M. Briggs . . 
( J. A. Eagon. .. 
j D. Townsend . . 
( S. G-. Briggs . . . 
\ H. Robinson . . 

I M. Tynan 

j J. M. Griffith.. 
/ T. C. Stowers. . 

j V. Stacy 

{ C. Boarman . . . 

( C. Ingalls 

/ James Carroll.. 



33 
109 

40 

41 
104 
105 

59 

85 

41 
103 

39 
105 

39 
103 

29 
107 

40 
103 

40 
103 

40 
103 

40 
103 



15 
15 
17 
17 
14 
14 
13 
20 
14 
17 
17 
15 
19 
13 
19 
13 
16 
16 
16 
16 
16 
16 
16 
16 



27 


25 


21 


33 


28 


6 


19 


55 


92 


13 


23 


25 


145 


8 


21 


22 


4 


11 


64 


19 


112 


104 


13 


20 


24 


65 


26 


25 


19 


29 


27 


6 


23 


59 


88 


13 


28 


16 


115 


26 


25 


21 


29 


27 


6 


22 


59 


89 


14 


27 


16 


116 


8 


21 


22 


7 


12 


64 


16 


105 


101 


1] 


14 


30 


88 


S 


21 


24 


7 


12 


64 


17 


107 


99 


13 


12 


26 


91 


23 


25 


14 


25 


23 


7 


24 


71 


89 


14 


24 


15 


89 


17 


21 


29 


20 


18 


66 


15 


97 


116 


12 


20 


32 


126 


23 


26 


21 


27 


28 


20 


24 


71 


90 


14 


27 


16 


120 


17 


21 


23 


20 


13 


53 


15 


97 


115 


12 


17 


32 


98 


26 


24 


22 


30 


28 


7 


25 


57 


90 


14 


27 


16 


118 


14 


23 


22 


16 


13 


66 


14 


111 


114 


11 


17 


32 


99 


27 


23 


22 


30 


28 


10 


25 


75 


88 


15 


20 


16 


125 


13 


23 


22 


17 


13 


63 


14 


93 


115 


11 


23 


32 


93 


25 


24 


24 


30 


28 


8 


25 


75 


86 


14 


28 


14 


97 


15 


23 


20 


17 


13 


64 


14 


94 


116 


11 


16 


33 


112 


26 


25 


22 


28 


28 


7 


25 


72 


96 


14 


27 


16 


121 


14 


21 


22 


17 


13 


66 


14 


96 


110 


11 


17 


32 


96 


27 


25 


22 


29 


28 


14 


25 


69 


89 


9 


27 


16 


12] 


13 


21 


22 


17 


13 


56 


12 


98 


114 


17 


16 


32 


95 


26 


25 


22 


29 


28 


6 


25 


72 


90 


14 


27 


16 


122 


14 


21 


22 


16 


13 


66 


14 


97 


115 


11 


17 


32 


95 


33 


25 


22 


29 


25 


7 


25 


71 


89 


14 


30 


16 


118 


6 


21 


22 


18 


16 


66 


14 


96 


115 


11 


11 


32 


93 


25 
14 




17 
25 




25 

14 


25 












12 

36 


110 

98 













169 

221 

159 

154 

233 

232 

155 

241 

176 

223 

160 

240 

169 

227 

225 

170 

159 

238 

17 

228 

169 

230 

157 

243 

£03 

190 



122 
120 
133 
13] 
112 
107 
14,3 
101 
1 33 
114 
120 
124 
114 
132 
137 
110 
137 
109 
138 
107 
130 
109 
135 
110 



157 
112 
162 
102 
109 
107 
143 
130 
158 
116 
171 
101 
188 
85 
164 
110 
16] 
113 
165 
109 
165 
107 
163 
109 



33 
55 
34 
34 
56 
56 
44 
53 
38 
59 
34 
61 
33 
64 
32 
65 
34 
63 
34 
62 
34 
63 
34 
62 



COUNTING THE VOTES. 

It is difficult to gather the facts in the matter of 
the counting of the votes. There was much ill- 
feeling about it, and many charges of fraud, and 
much filing and counter-filing of protests. Judge 
Badgely asked that the Supervisor votes for District 
No. 1 be canvassed, which was refused. The two 
candidates were James Carroll and C. Ingalls. The 
custom had prevailed, whether lawful or not, of 
holding elections in the camps in Arizona and Utah, 
where the volunteers from Amador were stationed, 
and returning their votes as from a precinct. Though 
these soldiers were known to be of both parties, the 
returns were generally all one way. It was alleged 
by the Democrats that no fair election was held; 
that the officers made out the returns to suit them- 
selves. The Democrats further urged that voting 
in Arizona for officers in Amador, was carrying the 
doctrine of constructive residence a little too far; 
that it was unconstitutional. The Republican argu- 
ments in favor of counting their votes, were rather 
necessity and expediency, than law. They showed 



the absurdity of the Union men all going to the 
war, and having no voice in the choice of officers, 
and leaving the secessionists in the rear to rule; and 
the votes were counted, though protests were filed 
by D. Worley, John Eagon, A. C. Brown, Henry Lee, 
James Carroll, R. M. Bradshaw, and John Surface. 

There were also other irregularities. At Clinton, 
D. B. Spagnoli acted both as Inspector and Clerk. 
There was no appearance of fraud in the matter, 
though the proceeding was evidently illegal. Here 
was a chance for a contest. The vote was generally 
six Republican, and sixty-four Democratic, making 
a difference of fifty-eight votes. If the soldiers' vote 
was rejected and Clinton accepted, most of the 
Democrats would be elected, otherwise, most of the 
Republicans. J. W. Armstrong, now a noted law- 
yer in Sacramento, then a young man, taking his 
first flights in law and logic, contended for the 
legality of the Clinton proceeding, and asserted the 
principle, that the statute permitted what it did not 
prohibit. The returns from Lower Rancheria hav- 
ing no certificate attached, were rejected. 



END OF THE SECOND DECADE. 



107 



LIST OF OFFICERS ELECTED IN 1865. 

State Senator — G. W. Seaton. 

Members of Assembly — M. Frink, H. Lee. 

Sheriff— E. Cosner. 

County Clerk — J. C. Shipman. 

Recorder — A. C. Hinkson. 

Treasurer— Otto Walther: 

County Surveyor — T. C. Stowers. 

District Attorney — E. JV1. Briggs. 

Superintendent of Schools — S. G. Briggs. 

Coroner — J. Boarman. 

Public Administrator- — M. Tynan. 

Supervisor District No. 1 — C. Ingalls. 

TOWNSHIP ELECTIONS. 

No. 1 — John Burke, Collector; E. Turner, Thomas 
Jones, Justices of the Peace. 

No. 2— J. W. Surface, Collector; Wm. H. Scudder, 
Wm. Shelley, Justices of the Peace. 

No. 3 — E. M. Bradshaw, Collector; H. T. Barnum, 
George S. Fake, Justices of the Peace. 

No. 4 — Thomas Dunlap, Collector; C. K. Johnson, 
P. Cook, Justices of the Peace. 

No. 5.— D. Worley, Collector; E. C. Brown, G. 
Devore, Justices of the Peace. 

No. 6— A. P. Wood, Collector; W. W. Swadley, 
H. D. Ford, Justices of the Peace. 

DEATH OF G. W. SEATON AND ELECTION OF HIS 

SUCCESSOR. 

This was caused by the explosion of the steamer 
To Semite, October 12, 1865, between Sacramento 
and San Francisco, W. A. Eogers, of Jackson, being 
killed at the same time. A more particular account 
of his life will be given in the account of the Amador 
Bar. This accident necessitated the calling of another 
election, which was fixed on the 2d of December. 
A. H. Eose was nominated by the Democrats and O. 
N. Morse by the Eepublicans. 

Quartz again, as was said, influenced the election. 
Eose had money to loan where it would do him good. 
The M. E. Church Society at lone borrowed some 
$1,500. It was not charged that this purchased any 
votes, but having shown a disposition to accommo- 
date the church, he was a good man and ought to be 
supported. He also obtained quite a support from 
the recently ejected settlers in lone, inducing them 
to think that Congress could be persuaded to remun- 
erate them by a memorial which he promised to get 
through the Legislature. His part of the contract 
he fulfilled; the memorial, containing a concise, well- 
written history of the Arroyo Seco grant, being trans- 
mitted to Congress with the official seal of the State 
on it. These things are not related to cast reflec- 
tions on Mr. Eose's method of conducting the canvass, 
but to show, as a soldier would, how battles are lost 
and won. 

The returns showed the following result: A. II. 
Eose, 1,342; O. H. Morse, 1,099. 

H. Lee, the member from Alpine county, was killed 
some months after by being thrown from a buggy. 



Miner Frink's seat was contested by A. C. Brown, 
who received but two or three votes less in the elec- 
tion than Frink. Brown proved that two or three 
illegal votes were cast for Frink, and obtained the 
seat. 

Frink afterward got a position in the office of 
Internal Eevenue, but a year or two later, was 
found dead in his bed at the hotel, in San Francisco. 

FINANCIAL MATTERS. 

The tax levy for 1865 was — 

For State purposes on each §100 $1 15 

General Fund " " 1 00 

Amador Wagon Eoad " " 40 

Hospital Fund " " 25 

School Fund " " 30 

Redemption Eoad Fund " " 10— $3.20 

In February, the outstanding warrants were 

reported as being — 

On General Fund $74,308.18 

Hospital Fund 11,619.71 

Wagon Eoad Fund 9,918.55 

Redemption Fund 185.27-^96.031.71 

This did not include interest which was then accu- 
mulating at the rate of about ten thousand dollars 
per year, which would have carried the debt up to 
about one hundred and thirty thousand dollars. 

This season the famous warrant, No. 103, was 
liquidated, the balance due being $7,556.16. 

REPORT OF AN EXPERT, 1865. 

E. G. Hunt was appointed to examine the state 
of the finances, and reported receipts from all 
sources, from March, 1864, to December, 1865, as 

follows: — 

Credited to General Fund $61,907.48 

State '.' ...... 5S.751.63 

School " 17,643.39 

" Hospital " 10,905.04 

Eoad " 3.32S.28 

« Sierra W. E 13,906.57— $166,442.39 

Taxes assessed in 1864 amounted to $75,753.20; 
delinquent, $15,072.26; making a net of $60,680.94. 



CHAPTEE XXII. 
END OF THE SECOND DECADE. 

Politics in 1 S66— Financial Matters — Eabolt Declared Ineligible 
to the Office of Treasurer, and Otto Walther Appointed — 
Political Parties in 1567— New Eegistry Law— Election 
Eeturns Showing the New Precincts — Judiciary Election — 
Financial Matters — Financial Matters in 1868 — Contest for 
Supervisor in the First District — Ingalls Declared Unseated 
— Carroll Installed — Act of the Legislature in Eeference 
Thereto — Wealth and Population — Political Parties in 1868, 
— Election Eeturns by Precincts — Politics in 1869 — Election 
Eeturns by Precincts. 

The year 1866 opened with little attention to 
politics. No elections occurring this season, the 
strife was over the far away subjects of reconstruc- 
tion, taxing bonds, and negro suffrage, which did 
not immediately concern the people. 

June 2d, the Treasurer reported outstanding war- 
rants as follows: — 



I OS 



HISTORY OF A.MADOB COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



On General Fund J83.343.93 

Hospital Fund 13,342.40 

Road Fund 3.569.3J 

To tliis must be added the bonds of the 
Sierra Nevada WagonBoad,amount- 
ingto 0,000.00— SlOG/i.-.").!; i 

This docs not include interest, which, since 1863, 
has been steadily accumulating, at the rare of ten 
thousand dollars yearly. 

December 1st, the outstanding warrants were 

reported as — 

On General Fund $92,229.30 

Wagon Road Fund 4,860.86 

Hospital Fund 14,01)8.00— $111,788.16 

No mention made of interest. 

The assessment roll was reported at SI, 874,817.75; 
taxes on same, $58,6S5.70. 

L. Rabolt, who had been elected Treasurer the 
previous season, Avas declared ineligible to the posi- 
tion, on the ground that he was not a citizen; and 
the office being vacant, Otto Walther was appointed 
to fill it. 

POLITICAL PARTIES IN 1867. 

The election of State and county officers, as well 
as members of Congress, caused the politicians to 
set their standards early in the field. 

H. H. Haight was nominated for Governor by 
the Democrats, and George C. Gorham, by the 
Republicans. Higby and Coffroth, both representa- 
tive men from the mines, were put forth by the 
Republicans and Democrats respectively, for Con- 
gress. The failure to impeach Andrew Johnson, 
which project was a Republican measure, had given 
the Democrats courage everywhere in the county, 
State, and nation. The Democrats had, to some 
extent, adopted his financial views about the pay- 
ment, or rather, non-payment of the national debt; 
and the traveling orators, including Farley and Cof- 
froth, roundly asserted, not only the right, but the 
expediency of taxing national bonds, while Edger- 
ton, and other Republican speakers, as roundly 
denied it, and referred to numerous decisions of the 
Supreme Court, establishing the non-taxability of 
national securities. The bitterness of war times 
was evidently passing away. The discussion of 
financial questions involved figures rather than feel- 
ings; and not every one was capable of entering 
into the spirit of large numbers. Bloated bond- 
holders and prospective negro suffrage, all could 
understand, and a general interest, rather than the 
intense bitterness of former years, marked the cam- 
paign. 

The following table will show the relative strength 
of the parties, and the names of the new polling 
places under the registration law, which, though 
somewhat difficult to put into operation, worked to 
the general satisfaction of the public. Under the 
old form of election, any out-of-the-way place could 
get up a precinct. A poll list was kept, it is true, 
but so loosely, that a man might vote in several 
places, or several times a day, without detection. 
Unnaturalized foreigners were voted in some places, 



by the dozens. Men were chosen for judges and 
inspectors, who could hardly read; and it was pos- 
sible to make up a general result only by condoning 
a multitude of mistakes and irregularities. 

ELECTION RETURNS- 1867. 



Governor 

Lieut. Governor 
Congressmen . . . 



Assemblymen, 



Sheriff 

County Clerk 

Recorder 

Treasurer 

District Attorney 

Surveyor 

Coroner 

Public Administ' 
Supt. Schools 



1 H. H. Haght, (D .). 

■ \ Goo. C. Gorham, (H.) 
I Win. Holden, (D.). ... 

• "( John P. Jones, (IO. . 

I J. W. Coffroth, (D.).. 
■\ Win. Higbv, (It.) ... 

(\. B. Gregory, (D.). . 
J Geo. M. Payne, (U.). . 

• ) Chas. D. Smith, (U.). 
(.William Pearson, (R.) 
I Geo. Durham, (D.).. 

' i Samuel Smith. (It.). . 
j A. C Hinkson, (D.).. 

■ \ A. F. Northrop, (It.), 
j D. B. Spagnoli, (D.). . 

• I Ph. Seibenthaler, (R.) 
| Jame^ Meehan, (D.). . 

' \ Henry Ginnoehio, (R.) 
i H. L. Waldo, (D.J... 

• 1 R. M. Br:ggs, (R.). . . 
J A. Specr, (D.) 

• ( Sam Loree, (It.) 

( Chas. Boarman. (D.) 

•1 W. E. Fifield, (It.)... 

I W. A. Few, (D.) . . . 

I G. L. Bratilv, (R.). . . 

S. G. Briggs, (D.) . . 

J. D. Mason, (R.) 



■\ 



- - 



147 280 

124 237 

144 287 
137 245 

143 286 
135 218 
154 286 

154 2SG 

131 24S 

132 245 
143 282 

141 253 

142 286 
135 246 

125 236 

155 296 
154 294 
137 246 

145 288 
137 246 
145 283 

. 134 248 
40& 145 283 
246 138 249 
. H4 291 
282 134 215 
4C3 134 291 
253' 147 241 



a. 

c 
< 


a 

i" 


CO 

e 
2 


Hll 


45 


214 


8!) 


42 


220 


164 


11 


215 


io;, 


46 


230 


164 


44 


2:4 


106 


46 


225 


159 


52 


214 


L64 


47 


228 


108 


41 


220 


98 


42 


213 


158 


53 


198 


110 


37 


24H 


163 


40 


231 


114 


50 


208 


138 


40 


220 


129 


50 


223 


10- 


51 


218 


99 


41 


LT27 


166 


45 


218 


103 


47 


224 


163 


44 


211 


107 


46 


228 


163 


35 


215 


LOS 


46 


230 


164 


45 


Iff 


105 


47 


280 


16* 


4:, 


217 


106 


49 


22: 



13. .8 
1076 
1345 
1147 
1347 
1151 
1336 
1361 
1166 
1114 
1323 
1178 
13^0 
1111 
1228 
1263 
1341 
1146 
1352 
1143 
134S 
IMS 
1342 
1148 
1256 
1229 
1338 
1155 



The entire Democratic ticket was elected with the 
exception of Seibenthaler, for County Clerk, who 
was chosen by a small majority. It was currently 
reported, and believed by many, that Otto AValther, 
who became acting County Clerk, owed his election 
to a commercial transaction rather than to political 
preferences. If it was so, it was so quietly done that 
no member of a Grand Jury ever got an inkling of it. 

The Collectors and Assessors for 1867 were — 

Township No. 1 — N. M. Bowman. 

Township No. 2— J. W. Surface. 

Township No. 3 — J. Foster. 

Township No. 4 — Thomas Dunlap. 

Township No. 5— J. T. Maffitt. 

Township No. 6 — F. L. Sullivan. 

At the judiciary election, J. Foot Turner, Repub- 
lican, was re-elected over J. T. Phelps, Democrat, by a 
large majority. This apparent change in the polit- 
ical cast of the vote was explained by the fact that 
Judge Turner never was an active politician, and 
was supported by persons of both parties. 

FINANCIAL MATTERS IN 1867. 

January, 1867, the reported outstanding warrants, 
over and above the funds on hand to meet them, 
was — 

On General Fund $94,761 74 

Hospital Fund 13,691 53-^108,453 27 

The Wagon Road Fund was $122.19 in excess of 
liability. This did not take into account the fifth 
bond which matured during the year, as the next 
report mentions it with the accrued interest, amount- 
ing to $5,510. In this estimate no mention is made 
of the interest which is steadily increasing. 



. 




RESIDENCE " R. C. DOWNS, 

SUTTER CREEK, AMADOR COUNTY, CAL. 



BmrraN arw*v, j.r. 



END OF THE SECOND DECADE. 



109 



TAX RATE FOR 1867. 

For State Fund, on each $100 §1 13 

General Fund " " 1 00 

Wagon Road Fund " 30 

Hospital Fund " 25 

School Fund " 35 

In March the total indebtedness, exclusive of inter- 
est, was reported at 884,110.01. How it was reduced 
$24,000 since January does not appear. 

March 12, 1867, John Burke, Collector of Town- 
ship No. 1, was declared defaulter to the amount of 
nine hundred and eighty-three dollars, by A. C. 
Hinkson, County Auditor, for which act, as well as 
other improper transactions, he was removed, and J. 
M.Griffith appointed in his place. Among other things, 
Burke was charged with making out receipts with 
pencil, and collecting money thereon, and afterwards 
procuring the receipts again for a trifle, erasing the 
name and amount, and using them again, or return- 
ing them to the Board of Supervisors as unused. 

FINANCIAL MATTERS IN 1868. 

Rate of taxes for State purposes on each §100 $1.00 

General Fund, " ;< 60 

Hospital Fund, " " 25 

School Fund, " " 35— §2.20 

March 3d, the outstanding warrants were 

General Fund $87,074.97 

Hospital Fund 11.403.20— $98,478.17 

Exclusive of interest!! 

The Supervisors making this report were C. ln- 
galls, L. McLaine and D. M. Goff. James Carroll 
was afterward declared by Judge Brockway entitled 
to the seat occupied by C. Ingalls for nearly three 
years. Many rumors were in circulation of a bar- 
gain between Carroll and Ingalls, that the latter 
should allow himself to be ousted that the former 
might draw a salary for the whole term; at any rate, 
Carroll presented a bill for $1,665.50, salary lor the 
full term, which was allowed by the Supervisors, but 
payment was stopped by means of an injunction 
served on the Treasurer by District Attorney Waldo. 
In 1872 the Legislature ordered the Supervisors of 
Amador county to draw a warrant for $1,050 as back 
salary, H. Waldo, John Eagon, and J. T. Farley 
being members for Amador county. Since the allow- 
ance was made by the Supervisors, lines in ink have 
been drawn through the minutes as if for erasure. 
Carroll took his seat July 6th; the allowance was 
made August 3d, following. 

THE WEALTH AND POPULATION 

According to reports were as follows: Real estate, 
$962,284; improvements, $247,549; personal property, 
$527,625; total, $1,737,458. Population, 11,400; 
registered votes, 2,552. 

POLITICAL PARTIES IN 1868. 

There being no local officers to elect, this was the 
off year in politics. The county officers, securely 
fixed in their seats for a year, rested serenely on their 
comfortable salaries. Some of the politicians and 
orators, scenting places in the Custom House or office 
of internal revenue, put on their armor, loaded their 



mental guns with the heaviest shot, and plunged into 
the thickest of* the fight, making a great smoke and 
noise whether they hit anybody or not. 

The State had been divided into Congressional 
Districts so that but a single Congressman was to be 
voted for. Coffroth and Sargent, Democratic and 
Republican candidates respectively, stumped the dis- 
tricts, taking Amador county in their course. The 
questions of payment of the national debt, the taxa- 
tion of the bonds, and the reconstruction of the 
Southern States, again came before the people. 
Grant, the Republican nominee for President, was 
reviewed, and, as was to be expected, was bitterly 
assailed and as warmly defended. The danger of 
electing soldiers to office was heldup to view. Many 
professed to believe that he would, with the aid of 
the army, make himself Emperor; that in case he 
was elected he would be the last President the United 
States would ever have; that in a short time we 
should have an order of hereditary nobility estab- 
lished. Others professed to think Grant only alucky 
fool, who would be the tool of designing politicians; 
that he was not much of a General anyhow; that 
Sherman, Thomas, Sheridan, Logan and others 
whipped the Rebellion. On the other hand Seymour 
was represented as heartless, treacherous and un- 
worthy. The microscope was turned on him and 
every possible mistake of his life magnified into a 
monstrous crime. His treatment of the New York 
rioters at the time of the draft was made construc- 
tive treason. "He ought to have turned loose the 
dogs of war on the rioters; ought never to have 
addressed them calling them his friends." Illustrated 
editions of the New York riots in which brutal Irish- 
men were slaying defenseless negro orphan children 
were everywhere circulated; in short, the old, old 
stories, told every year from the time of Jefferson 
down, were brought out, colored and re-shaped to 
suit the times and persons, so that they were almost 
as good as new. Strangers to our country and its 
style of conducting a campaign, whether national or 
local, would imagine that we were on the eve of 

ELECTION RETURNS BY PRECINCTS IN 1868. 



PRECINCTS. 



Jackson -- 

lone City 

Lancha Plana .- 

Clinton . — 

Volcano 

Fiddletown 

Enterprise 

Sutter Creek 

Amador 

Drytown . 

Forest Home -- 

Total ----- 

Democratic majority 



320 

142 
42 
70 

246 
91 
54 

138 
42 
62 
16 



1223 
125 



236 
127 

49 

23 

222 

SI 
28 
1S8 
48 
i;i 
42 



lll!t> 



320 
142 

42 
72 

247 
92 
54 

133 
41 
62 
16 



1221 
110 



223 

157 
49 
21 

221 
SI 
28 

188 
48 
64 
42 

1112 



1 JO 



BISTORT? OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



anarchy, a general breaking up of all order and indus- 
tries; but the elections pass away, the people, satisfied 
with masquerading, return to their avocations and 
prosperity continues. 

POLITICAL PARTIES IN 1869. 

A full set of county officers to be elected, set things 
to going early. The interest was the most intense 
in the Democratic party as being the most likely to 
win, though much of the work was given to obtaining 
the nominations. 

The railroad question began to be agitated this year, 
the question of regulating fares and freights having 
become an element in politics. To what extent, if 
any, candidates were supplied with the material for 
making a successful campaign, by pledging them- 
selves, will always be a matter of mystery. The 
Democrats, as usual, elected their whole ticket. It 
will be observed that the township system was 
discontinued, a County Assessor and Collector being 
chosen. 

ELECTION OE JUSTICES OF THE PEACE, 1869. 

Township No. 1 — E. Turner, J. S. Campbell. 
Township No. 2 — Charles Walker, William Shelby. 
Township No. 3 — Louis Miller, Louis Ludiken. 
Township No. 4 — C. K. Johnson, U. Nurse. 
Township No. 5— M. B. Church, C. D. Smith. 
Township No. 6— E. R. Yates, F. Shearer. 

ELECTION RETURNS-1869. 



STATE SENATOR. 

J. T. Farley, (D.) 

M. W. Gordon, (R.) 

ASSEMBLYMEN. 

A. C. Brown, (D.) 

J. M. Johnson, (D.) 

Wm. Jennings . 

- — Folger 

SHERIFF. 

Geo. Durham, (D.) 

Foster, (R.) 

COUNTY CLERK. 

D. B. Spagroli, (D.) 

B. F. Richtmyer, (R.) 

TREASURER. 

James Meehan, (D.) 

F. McBride. (R.) 

DISTRICT ATTORNEY. 

H. L. Waldo, (D..) 

E. G. Hunt, (R.) 

COUNTY ASSESSOR. 

James Surface, (D.) 

Getchell,(R.( 

TUBLIC ADMINISTRATOR. 

A. Yoak , 

W. T. Wildman 

SUPERINTENDENT SCHOOLS 

S. G. Brings 

E. B. Mclntyre 



78 125 

19 1U4 

122 

124 

105 

20 104 



25S 181 
142 155 



> 


d 


"a 


a 








— 


V> 






u. 


p. 
c 


o 

s 


3 


o 
















3 






a 




49 


49 


9 


83 


36 


40 


27 


59 


43 


23 


7 


75 


46 


44 


i 


81 


38 


74 


30 


66 


38 


48 


30 


58 


56 


50 


10 


87 


26 


48 


27 


53 


41 


11 


6 


69 


42 


86 


31 


75 


51 


49 


8 


90 


31 


4S 


29 


55 


45 


36 


7 


79 


38 


60 


30 


6S 


47 


51 


9 


89 


37 


47 


28 


56 


46 


48 


7 


89 


37 


50 


30 


56 


45 


47 


7 


88 


39 


50 


30 


55 



1209 
815 

1082 
1151 
946 
854 

1278 
49 

1107 
925 

1221 
780 

1156 
862 

1240 
795 

1222 
814 

1214 
824 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

CONDITION OF THE COUNTY AT THE BEGINNING 
OF THE THIRD DECADE-- 1870. 

Condition of the County at the Beginning of the Third Decade — 
Statistics of the Wealth and Indebtedness — Politics in 1870 
— Financial Condition — Redemption Fund — Condition of 
Other Counties — The .Miners' League — Death of MeMenemy 
and Hatch — Political Parties in 1872 — Election Returns by 
Precincts, 1871 — Persons Elected in 1871 — Financial Mat- 
ters 1872 — Political Parties in 1872 — Election Returns for 
1872 — Comparison of Vote with Previous Years — Financial 
Matters, 1873 — Political Parties in 1873 — John Eagon's Posi- 
tion — Judge Gordon's Stand — J. T. Farley's Position — Elec- 
tion Returns by Precincts— Officers Elected in 1873 — Alpine 
county Left out in the Election — Financial Matters in 1874 
— The Funding Project — Political Parties in 1874 — Financial 
Matters in 1875 — Robbery of the Treasury May 9, 1875 — 
Conclusion of Butterfield Matter in 1877 — Political Matters 
in 1875 — Officers elected in 1875. 

According to the reports of the Assessor the value 
of all property, personal and real, was $2,241,070. 
The county debt had been estimated as being less 
than $100,000, but as was written in the previous 
chapters of the history, it was constantly increasing, 
the sums paid not being equal to the interest, and con- 
sequently no portion was applied to the payment of 
the principal. At the beginning of this decade the 
debt was nearly, if not quite, $200,000. It seems to 
be the fate of political organizations, as well as of 
individuals, to go into extravagant and wasteful 
expenditure in prosperous times, and pay up when 
times are hard. At the beginning of 1860 we found 
placer mining remunerative to a high degree; quartz 
mining established on a paying basis and agriculture 
and horticulture profitably employing a great num- 
ber of men. The farms on the Mokelumne river, in 
Jackson, lone and Dry Creek valleys, as well as on 
the heads of the latter creeks, with their waving 
fields of grain, orchards, and vineyards, were all that 
could be desired. 

Many causes combined to arrest this tide of pros- 
perity. The Frazer river excitement drew away a 
great many miners. Still later the discovery of the 
Washoe mines caused another outflow of hundreds 
of able, industrious men. The copper excitement 
took a great many away from moderately profitable 
work; and, when copper failed in the subsequent 
years to prove remunerative, at least five hundred 
men were set adrift, most of whom left the county 
in search of some more promising place. During 
the years of 1861-64, the price of cattle of all 
kinds Went down with a panic, so that many, who 
considered themselves well fixed, became poor men. 
The wine business, which promised so much, had 
proved an utter failure, every attempt to market the 
wine in the East resulting in loss; so that many per- 
sons Avere induced to tear up their vineyards and 
give up the business. The orchards, which pro- 
duced a great quantity of the finest fruit, were also 
poor property; for the emigration of many of the 
miners left no market for such products. The quartz 
mining alone" saved the county from comparative 
poverty. The mines along the mother lodes, as well 
as in the eastern part of the county, on the Yolcano 



AT THE BEGINNING OF THE THIRD DECADE. 



Ill 






range, gave employment to perhaps one thousand 
men. Some of the mines, such as the Lincoln, 
Mahoney and Hay ward at Sutter Creek, and others at 
Diytown, Amador, and Plymouth, took out sums 
varying from ten thousand to sixty thousand dol- 
lars per month. Large quantities of wood and lum- 
ber were required, which furnished labor to as many 
more men as were engaged in the mines. 

With all this there was little increase in the pop- 
ulation and prospective wealth. The vote, which in 
1860 had closely reached four thousand, in ten years 
was reduced to about two thousand, though there 
was no decrease in population in proportion to the 
vote, as the roving part was composed mostly of 
men without families. 

The gradual improvement in financial standing, 
through wise management, and a gradual and 
healthy growth in all the business industries of the 
country will appear as the third decade passes away. 

A FEW STATISTICS 

As to the comparative wealth and population will be 
interestina;: — 





Population in 1S70. 


Population 
in I860.* 


PRECINCTS- 


>-3 

c 

(7t- 


3 

el- 
re 


o 
oq' 


CD 


O 

o 


O 
B' 

CD 
CO 

CD 


o 


3 

CD 


C 

z_ 
o" 

1-5 
CD 
p 


O 
5' 

CO 

Ul 
CO 


Jackson 


240S 


1170 


132b 


1988 


3 


417 


1344 1822 


17 


505 


lone 


1779 


1094 


6S5 


1330 


24 


425 


27 12 '2098 


21 


539 




1357 


840 


'517 


1218 


2 


137 


1545 15-7 


5 


113 




I960 


1157 


809 


1S5S 


30 


7^ 


1214 1022 


13 


179 


Drytown 


853 


480' 


307 


610 


2 


211 


1559 


852 


L8 


689 


Oleta 


1219 


702 


517 


849 





365 


1191 


824 


6 


361 
















478 
1 10930 


3S2 

S527 


J 

81 


95 


Total 


9582 


5449 


4223 


7S83 


72 


1627 


2535 



In making these estimates the Government gave 
the township the name of the largest town. 

1870 1860 

Assessed value of Real Estate $1,167,525 
'• Pers. Property 785,419 



Total J $1,952,944 $2,395,684- 

True value $4,428,490 

$19,944 $28,855.90 

-.- $29,293 



State Taxes... 
County Taxes. 

Total.. 



County Debt 

Improved Land (in acres).. 
Unimproved kL '■ 

Cash value of Farms 

" " Farm Impl'ts. . .. 
" •' Orchard Products 
'• ' : Farm " 

• " Market Gardens. . 

'• " Manufactories 

'• " Animals for Food 

•• •• Live Stock. 

2s T umber of Horses 

Mules 

Milch Cows 

" Working Oxen _ . 
" Other Cattle 



$48,237 

$165,000 

41,534 

19.782 

$486,400 

43.015 

43,350 

363,983 

11,605 

26,000 

62,232 

280,587 

1,686 

141 

1,471 ) 

68 
2,497 ) 



$4,823.50 
38,483 



1,749 



- 9,633 



There is a slight discrepancy in the census returns . 



Number of Sheep 23,914 3,990 

" Swine 5,380 

Bushels of Wheat raised 16,678 39,000 

Corn " 36,370 19,000 

Barley " 51,815 31,175 

" Potatoes " 9,988 9,200 

" Sweet " 1,060 

Pounds of Wool 73.010 

Gals. Wine made 54,165 

Pounds of Butter 43,700 

Cheese 950 

Gals. Milk sold... 1,600 

Tons Hay raised... 5,908 3,000 

Pounds of Hops 12,050 

" Honey 2,520 

Quartz Mills 33 27 

Tons of Rock crushed 61,736 70,360 

POLITICAL PARTIES IN 1870. 

This was a year of quiet, as neither national, State, 
or county officers were to be elected. The mutter- 
ings of the storm, that was prevailing in the East, 
were but little heeded in the off years. It took the 
loaves and fishes of the county offices to arouse the 
politicians to a full sense of the dangers impending 
over our Constitution, our country or our race. No 
livery teams were hired to carry the men, ambitious 
to serve their country in easy, lucrative offices, around 
to alarm the people. No twenty-dollar pieces were 
left at the saloons to pay for beer doled out where it 
would do the most good. In fact, everything was dis- 
tressingly dull, and the people were allowed to attend 
quietly to their business. 

FINANCIAL CONDITION OF THE COUNTY. 

Nobody knew exactly how it stood. It is true 
that quarterly returns were made by the Sheriff, 
Auditor, Treasurer, and Supervisors, and occasion- 
ally the Grand Jury would have a spasm of economy 
and make an inquiry into the financial condition; but 
who among the Grand Jurors had time to look over 
the stubs of the outstanding warrants, to see for 
what purpose, or when they were drawn, or how 
much interest had accumulated, or whether even the 
interest had been paid! A few persons were con- 
scious of the painful uncertainty and to these the 
county is indebted for the arrangements which not 
only brought the accumulating debt to view, but pro- 
vided means for its gradual liquidation. 

REDEMPTION FUND. 

As early as February 7th the Supervisors, L. Mc- 
Laine, Henry Peck, and D. M. Goff, took the matter 
under consideration and recommended a plan which, 
however, was said to have been first suggested by 
James Meehan, the Treasurer, that sixty cents on 
each one hundred dollars should be raised to be used 
as a sinking fund for outstanding registered war- 
rants. Meehan went to Sacramento and personally 
solicited the support of the members not interested 
in the matter, his position as Treasurer enabling him 
to explain the necessity of some such measure, to 
prevent the county from becoming bankrupt. Messrs. 



112 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Farley and Brown, Senator and Assemblyman 

respectively. ably supported the Hill, and on the 12th 
of March ii became a law. It provided a sinking 
fund of sixty cents on each one hundred dollars 
which was sacred for this purpose; also that no war- 
rant should be drawn unless (here was money to 
meet it; a certificate of indebtedness, bearing no 
interest, being given when occasion demanded. 
Though the sum specially assessed was sufficient to 
check the accumulation of interest, and also assisted 
materially in bringing to light the different items, it 
was not until December 3, 1872, that the full amount 
of liabilities was known and reported, the debt having 
been estimated at one hundred and sixty-five thou- 
sand dollars. To anticipate the result it was then 
reported that the outstanding warrants 

On General Fund with interest was. . .$157,126 02 
On Hospital Fund, " "... 38,007 33 

On New Certificates not bearing interest 13,7513 23— $208,884 58. 

CONDITION OF OTHER COUNTIES. 

About this time, general attention was attracted 
towards some of the older mining counties, which, 
in former years, had contained much the largest 
share of the population. At one time, El Dorado 
county, now numbering less than ten thousand 
inhabitants, had fifty thousand. Tuolumne, Cala- 
veras, and some others, also showed a great reduc- 
tion. In Calaveras, the condition was much worse 
than in Amador. The population reduced to less 
than ten thousand; the assessment roll yearly 
decreasing; the debt, principal and interest, con- 
stantly accumulating, so that five per cent, taxes 
was hardly sufficient to meet current expenses, was 
a condition calculated to depress and crush out all 
industrial energy. It was known that stock-men, 
who grazed their flocks in the mountains of Cala- 
veras, would hold them in other counties, where the 
rates of taxation were lower, until the time for 
assessing was past, before they would drive them 
to their pastures. A tax rate as high as five per 
cent, was considered as a mortgage for all the prop- 
erty was worth. Things were looking so serious 
that the Legislature felt called upon to investigate 
the matter before the question of State' responsibility 
for county indebtedness, should meet them in the 
shape of a judgment. 

In making these investigations, Amador was con- 
sidered one of the counties possibly requiring the 
aid of the State. Happily, it has passed any such 
probable contingency. 

THE MINERS' LEAGUE. 

Any history of Amador county which failed to 
give an account of the Miners' League, would be 
lamentably deficient. This Society organized as a 
kind of mutual benefit association. It does not 
appear that any unlawful measures were at first 
contemplated; but organization gave the members 
an idea of strength and influence. Merchants joined 
the league, for fear of losing the trade of the miners; 



politicians, to make a few votes; and the lawless and 
desperate, to work against law and order in society, 
in Sutter Creek, it numbered about three hundred 
members, composed of Irish, Cornishmen, Austrians, 
and Italians, and had a membership of perhaps as 
man}- more in other parts of the county. They 
built a large hall, costing several thousand dollars. 
Luke Burns, who had had some experience in simi- 
lar associations in Virginia City, was President, and 
L. J. Marks, Secretary. 

The immediate cause of the outbreak was the 
reduction of twenty-five cents a day on the wages 
of the hands working on the surface, in the Consoli- 
dated Amador mine. After much discussion a gen- 
eral strike was agreed upon, also a determination to 
enforce it everywhere, and not permit the working 
of the mines unless at the proposed rates. The 
schedule of wages demanded by the Miners' League 
made very little advance over the existing rates, 
but the right to make even a small advance im- 
plied a right to control the working of the mines, 
and the mine owners refused to accept the rates. 
Members of the league to the number of two hun- 
dred visited the different mines, and ordered the 
stopping of the work. They carried no arms that 
were in sight, though according to some reports they 
supplied themselves with clubs from the wood-piles 
of the mills. It is now contended by some that no 
threats or force was used; that the miners went 
rather as a committee of conference than as a menac- 
ing party. They would not permit any work to be 
done, not even allowing an engine to be run to keep 
the water out. John Eagon, since State Senator, 
and James Mcehan, as well as other prominent men, 
were members of the league. The former person 
accompanied the body of miners to the mills, as he 
asserted, to prevent them from committing any 
excesses, though others say, that having raised "a 
storm he could not control he Avas swept along in 
the whirlwind. The mills at Amador, Sutter, and 
Oneida were all stopped. It is true that some of 
these mines, like the Keystone, Consolidated, Ama- 
dor, and others, were paying mines, and could have 
paid higher wages and dividends also; but other 
mines like the Oneida had never paid dividends, but 
had always been worked at a loss. The wages paid 
varied from two dollars and a half a day for top 
hands, to four dollars for underground men. There 
was no plea that the wages were insufficient to sup- 
port the families, or less than were paid in other 
laborious occupations, but it was intended to raise 
them to the Virginia and Gold Hill standard, where 
the expenses of living were much higher. The daily 
threats of destruction of life and property showed 
the existence of so much ill-feeling that the Governor 
was invoked for aid, and a body of volunteers, 
under General Cazenau, came from San Francisco 
and camped on the hill near the old Wolverine 
shaft. They had several pieces of artillery, and 
formed a regular military camp, sending out and 




RESIDENCEof JUDGE GEORGE MOORE. 

JACKSON, AMADOR COUNTY, CAL. 




RESIDENCE"' HON. JAMES T.FARLEY. 

JACKSON. AMADOR COUNTY, CAL. 



. AT THE BEGINNING OF THE THIRD DECADE. 



113 



relieving guards every evening for the different 
mines. Correspondents from the cities accompanied 
the troops, and reported the conditions every day. 

Never, at any time in the history of the county, 
was the apprehension of danger to life and property 
so strong. The members of the league were men 
who were accustomed to danger, for what does a 
man care for life who risks it every day as a 
miner does. And then the mass of the miners felt 
amenable to no laws but their own. There is no 
class of people who have so little intercourse with 
the outside world, who have their own codes of 
ethics and modes of thought, as the professional 
miners. The threats of life and property, extended 
to other parts of the county. It seemed that the 
officers of justice were paralyzed. The newspapers 
of the county said little about it, as if fearful that a 
word might bring destruction upon them. 

The result was a general prostration of business. 
The towns around the quartz mines had been the 
principal market for produce for some years, and 
when a thousand or more men were thrown out of 
employment and the money which was usually paid 
as wages ceased to circulate, the dejn-ession in 
business was universal, producing in some instances 
actual distress. 

The soldiers remained in the county for several 
weeks, and prevented any destruction of property. 
Some kind of concession was made which termi- 
nated the siege, and the soldiers left, although the 
ill-feeling engendered by the operation remained for 
some time. The damage to the county by this affair 
can hardly be estimated. The mines of gold and 
copper, as well as other minerals, require the aid of 
capital to be made profitable. Capital must be pro- 
tected, or it silently shuts itself up. In subsequent 
years, the memory of the Amador war diverted 
many thousands of dollars from investment in the 
county. 

DEATH OF m'mENEMY AND HATCH. 

Several altercations grew out of the matter, one 
resulting in the death of two men and the wounding 
of a third. The following from the Dispatch of July 
29, 1871, gives the only account of the matter to be 
found: — 

" The wounds received by Hatch and McMenemy 
have both proved fatal. Both of the wounded men 
were attended by the best of medical aid, but human 
effort proved of no avail. McMenemy lingered 
until half-past twelve p. m., on Wednesday, when he 
died; Mr. Hatch, til! hall-past four the same after- 
noon, when he breathed his last. He was conscious 
to the last, but unable to speak for some hours before 
his death. 

" We will not attempt to give any of the particu- 
lars of this truly melancholy affair, as there are so 
many conflicting statements and rumors afloat that 
it is almost impossible to arrive at the truth of the 
matter. The immediate cause of the shooting, how- 
ever, grew out of an attack made on Mr. Hatch the 
Friday night previous, at a concert given in Sutter 
Creek. The result has created much feeling and 
15 



excitement in our county, 
can now tell." 



Where it will end no one 



Hatch was the confidential clerk of the Amador 
Consolidated Co. Bennet was his friend, who took 
up the quarrel that was forced on Hatch. He was 
obliged to leave the county. Hatch left a young 
wife to mourn her loss. 

Wrigglesworth, an engineer, who persisted in 
running an engine for pumping, after notice to quit, 
was set upon in the streets, and escaped through the 
kindness of a woman in the Exchange Hotel, who 
hid him away while the crowd was searching for 
him. He also had to leave the county. 

The reign of terror gradually passed away, though 
the influence of the Miners' League was felt in polit- 
ical matters sometime after. 

POLITICAL PARTIES IN 1871. 

A full set of county and State officers was to be 
elected and, consequently, the politicians began early 
to take advantageous positions and set their forces in 
the field. There were no great national issues to 
arouse public interest, but a combination, or perhaps 
a bidding for the vote of the Miners' League, hereto- 
fore mentioned, gave a great deal of interest to the 
campaign. John Eagon, a member of the League, 
was supposed to control three hundred votes, which 
number would ensure the election of any one nomin- 
ated by either party. Few of the better citizens of 
either party would countenance the proceedings of 
the League, but as one old politician said, three 

ELECTION RETURNS -1871. 



CANDIDATES. 



GOVERNOR. 

H. H. Haight(D.) 

Newton Booth ( R.) 

LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR. 

E. J. Lewis (D.) 

R. Paeheco(R.) 

CONGRESSMAN. 

Coffroth(D.) 

Sargent ( R.) 

ASSEMBLYMEN. 

Waldo (D.) 

J ohnson (D.) 

Coleman (R.) 

Eagon (Ind.) 

Swift (Ind.) 

SHERIFF. 

John Vogan (D.) 

H. Kelly (R.) 

COUNTY CLERK. 

Spagnoli(D.) 

Richtrayer (R.) 

TREASURER. 

Meehan (D.) 

Button (R.) 

DISTRICT ATTORNEY. 

Turner (D.) 

Briggs(R.) 

ASSESSOR. 

Surface 

Mullen 

SUPERINTENDENT SCHOOLS. 

Briggs 

Kerr „ 

SURVEYOR. 

Reaves 

Mclvinmi 

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATOR. 

Yoak ; 

Winnegar 

CORONER 

Boarman 

Sharp : 



105 103 
24:13: 

105 106 

24 135 

106,100 
23 140 

83 107 
1071100 
23|l33 
45 115 
... 13 

104117 

25 123 



109 150 
20 89 



101(102 
23 139 



104 104 
25 13(5 



10G 104 
23 136 



105 106 
23 134 



188 14 
ISO 218 



(ill 



36 14 

70 36 

40 15 

66 35 

38 14 

69' 36 

30 15 

38 14 

68' 35 

69 Sd9 

1 



18 



47 17 

58' 33 



38, 11 
68 39 



40' 15 
66, 35 



36 10 

68 39 



41 16 
65' 33 



114 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



hundred votes were hard to pick up, so tho three 
hundred were treated with distinguished considera- 
tion. What diplomatic feats were performed; what 
promises made and broken none will tell. The elec- 
tion returns form tho best history of the transaction. 

OFFICERS ELECTED IN 1871. 

District Judge — A. C. Adams. 
County Judge — T. M. Pawling. 
Assemblymen — II. A. Waldo, J. A. Eagon. 
District Attorney — R. M. Briggs. 
County Clerk — B. F. Richtmyer. 
Sheriff— H. B. Kelley. 
Treasurer — 0. Button. 
Surveyor — D. D. Reaves. 
Assessor — J. W. Surface. 
Superintendent of Schools — S. G. Briggs. 
Coroner — Charles Boarman. 
Public Administrator — A. Yoak. 

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 

Township No. 1 — J. C. Shipman, Hugh Robinson. 
" " 2— L. Brusie, L. M. Barle. 

" 3— S. F. Mullen, L.Ludekin. 
" 4— P. Cook, J. S. Hill. 
" 5— M. B. Church, D. Worley. 
" 6— E. R. Yates, James Gregg. 

FINANCIAL MATTERS IN 1872. 

This may be distinguished as the year of waking 
up, when every cranny and pigeon hole was ran- 
sacked to find the amount of the county debt. In 
February the Treasurer estimated the debt as $179,- 
265.47. On the sixth day of June the report indicated 
outstanding warrants on — 

General Fund with interest $153,551.00 

Hospital Fund " " 36.995.6S 

New Certificates 1,979,64— $192,526.32 

The following note is appended to the report: — 

"Upon a thorough examination of the registration 
of outstanding warrants against the redemption and 
hospital funds of the county, as the same appears on 
the books of the County Treasurer, it appears that 
the reports made of the indebtedness of the county 
for the past years have been incorrect, the true 
indebtedness being much greater than reported. The 
presumption is, the error was committed by report- 
ing the interest paid as a reduction of the principal 
to that amount, when in fact it did not reduce it at 
all." 

The last quarterly report, December 3, 1872, was, 
outstanding warrants on — 

General Fund $157,121.02 

Hospital Fund 38,007.33 

New General Fund 13,758.23— $20S,884.58 

The Assessor, J. W. Surface, catching some of the 
economic spirit, doubled the assessment roll and aston- 
ished the people with the amount of wealth in tho 
county. 

Assessment roll for 1872: — 

Keal Estate $ 359,133 

Improvements 269,105 

Town Lots 90^965 

Improvements thereon 279.S00 

Mining Claims 1,296,200 



Improvements 150,350 

Telegraph 800 

Water Ditches 82,950 

Personal Property ' 3,027,119— $5,556,442 

It.itu uf taxation, $2.35 OD each $100. 

Taxes assessed, including special school taxes, $77,531.17. 

TAX RATES. 

Sinking Fund 70c. Producing. .$22,307.25 

General Fund 45c. " .. 14,340.37 

School Fund 30c. " .. 9,560.25 

Hospital Fund... 40c. " ' .. 6,373.50 

State Fund 50c— $2.35 " . . 15,933.75— $74,8S8.62 

Considering that the population of the county was 
something less than ten thousand, government was 
was quite a luxury, costing about $8.00 per capita. 

POLITICAL PARTIES IN 1872. 

This year furnishes an apt illustration of the often 
repeated assertion that the desire for office was at 
the foundation of the enthusiasm generally prevalent 
during elections. There were no county offices to 
fill, and it was difficult to kindle any interest in the 
mass of voters. The Presidential election was a far 
away matter in the chances to get a public appoint- 
ment, and few took any interest on that account. Then 
the nominations were singular. Grant, the Republi- 
can nominee for President, in former days, was con- 
sidered a Democrat, and Greeley, the Democratic 
nominee never was a Democrat; on the contrary, he 
had been during his whole life, fiercely aggressive on 
them; had charged them with all kinds of sins, indi- 
vidually and collectively — sins political, moral and 
intellectual; but Greeley had quarreled with the 
administration, and he was thought a suitable candi- 
date to make an inroad in the Republican ranks. A 
great many, who were former admirers of Greeley, 
were known to be disaffected, and, it was thought, 
would leave the Republican party. The Democrats 
had now conceded the payment of the national debt 
and the validity of the Constitutional amendments, 
so that there was really little difference of opinion, 
on national questions, to keep the people apart. The 
old Democrats reluctantly fell into the ranks with 

ELECTION RETURNS FOR 1872. 








9 

d 

o 


hi 


O 
o 

crq 

Oq 


PRECINCTS. 


P 




y 


a 
o 


Jackson 


173 
65 


172 
20 


159 
65 


188 


Clinton 


21 


lone City . 


115 


92 


88 


119 


Lancha Plana :. 


35 

165 

155 

53 

47 


38 
155 
80 
85 
26 


25 

135 

135 

30 

43 


46 


Volcano . . ... 


188 


Sutter Creek 


132 


Amador _ 


106 


Drytown 


31 


Forest Home . — 


34 


12 


12 


24 


Fiddletown 


52 
15 


45 
25 


11 
12 


89 


Enterprise 


26 


Plymouth 


55 


22 


29 


46 


Total 


964 


772 


744 


1016 



AT THE BEGINNING OF THE THIRD DECADE. 



115 



Greeley at the head of the column. It was a decided 
case of self-sacrifice for the benefit of the country. 
The younger Democrats suspended the rule and 
voted as they pleased. As might have been expected 
the vote was very light. Even the vote for Congress- 
man was far short of the usual numbers. 

A comparison of the vote with that of 1868 will 
be of interest as showing the want of interest in the 
election: — 

1868. 1872. 

Grant (E.) 1,109 Grant (E.) 946 

Seymour (D.)-- -1.223 Greeley (D.). ... 772 

Total... 2,332 Total 1,718 

Decrease in vote, 614. 

CONGRESSIONAL VOTE. 

1868. 1872. 

Sargent (E.) .... 1,102 Page (E.) 744. 

Coffroth (D.).. ..1,222 Coggins (D.) 1,016 

Total 2,324 Total 1,760 

Decrease in vote, 564. 

Pace's vote was two hundred and two less than 
Grant's, and Greeley's vote two hundred and forty- 
eight less than Coffroth's. It is evident that many 
men of both parties failed to vote, and that personal 
preferences, with many Democrats as well asEcpub- 
licans, were stronger than party ties; also, that 
National questions were considered of less moment 
than the election of the right kind of men for county 
officers, as the whole vote fell short of the vote of 
the previous year as follows: — 

County Clerk — Spagnoli, 1,002; Eichtmyer, 1,194; 
total, 2,196. Presidential vote, 1872— 1,718. Differ- 
ence, 478. 

Vote for County Clerk in 1873— Stevens, 1,087; 
Eichtmyer, 1,017; total, 2,104. Difference, 386. 

FINANCIAL MATTERS IN 1873. 

From this time, there seems to have been an 
earnest effort to pay off the debt, as well as to check 
county expenditures. The effort to make the pros- 
pective value of the mines an item on the assessment 
roll, failed. The mine owners succeeded in evading 
it, sometimes by a technicality. In other instances, 
the Supervisors abated part of the tax, to avoid a 
doubtful and expensive lawsuit. The Keystone min- 
ing property was assessed in bulk, the taxes amount- 
ing to nine thousand dollars, which the company 
refused to pay, whereupon, J. W. Surface, the col- 
lector, proceeded to sell the property. In the suit 
which followed, the Court decided, that, though the 
property was principally owned by one company, 
it should have been described and assessed as three 
separate properties; that, in consequence of this, 
the collector be restrained from selling it. 

The assessment roll was reduced to $3,186,750, 

and 818,176.90 taxes were reported as delinquent. 

The total indebtedness July 31st, was reported at — 

Outstanding warrants on Gen. Fund. . $141,76S.0S 
Hospital Fund. 34,044.36 
Certificates not bearing interest 13,991.09 — §189,S03.53 



October 3d, it was reported — 

Outstanding warrants on Gen. Fund. .$143,894.39 
Hospital Fund.. 34,736.46 

Certificates not bearing interest 17,774.65 

New Hospital Fund 1,032.85— $197,438.35 

POLITICAL PARTIES IN 1873. 

Early in the season, it was evident that a nomina- 
tion by the Democratic party was equivalent to an 
election, and the strife was principally in the prima- 
ries. Nearly every town had a full sot of candidates, 
who undertook to effect a combination which should 
have their own names on the slate. When the pri- 
maries were over, the successful operators went into 
the Convention, each with his list of delegates, which 
he could trade or bestow on any other candidate as 
a consideration for votes given to himself. Some 
sturdy, independent men, finding themselves valued, 
labeled and consigned to certain parties, will re*bel 
and fret, but a skillful manipulator will manage to 
conciliate them with the promise of a nomination 
another year, or something equally delusive, and so, 
year after year, a smart manager wriggles him- 
self into office; and the man who studies political 
economy instead of men, who knows less of prima- 
ries and more of the science of government, is left 
in the rear in the race. It may be said, however, 
in defense of this kind of political economy, that the 
best governments are the result of organizations 
which harmonize conflicting elements into a force 
working for the general good; that he who cannot 
lead, and is unwilling to follow, must stand aside. 

This season showed a change of positions of some 
of the leaders. John Eagon, one of the old Demo- 
cratic war horses, who was wont to fall into the 
front line when a charge was sounded, now ranged 
himself with the Eepublicans. When he made his 
intention known, he excused, or rather justified, him- 
self with the remark of a Eoman orator: " Tempora 
mutantur, mutamvr," which may be translated, 
Times change, we change. In a rather lengthy address, 
the sentiment, above quoted, was elaborated into 
something like the following: "Fellow-citizens; I 
honestly defended slavery, not that I believed it 
advantageous to States or to the nation, but because 
I found it recognized in the national compact as an 
existing institution. I opposed the attempt to coerce 
the States who refused to submit to the election of 
of a President, and the establishment of an adminis- 
tration hostile to the institution of slavery, not 
because I justified secession, but because I believed 
that reunion could be safely left to time and oppor- 
tunity. The nation thought otherwise. Slavery 
has been abolished by the court of last resort; the 
Union has been re-established, though at a fearful 
price. I do not believe in prolonging a useless 
strife. I am willing to accept the verdict, and abide 
the judgment of the Court. I am willing to forget 
the past, and join with any party to cultivate peace 
and friendship between the two sections, and repair 
the waste and desolations of the war." 



116 



HISTORY OF AMAlxilJ. COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Judge Gordon also took the stump for the Repub- 
lican party. He had been longer a member of the 
Democratic party, because an older man; had been 
a Murat in the thickest of the fight, where his intel- 
lectual sword was sure to cleave a broad way 
through opposing ranks. Though his judgment 
might have caused him to submit to, and advocate; 
the new order of political economy, his heart did 
not respond to the new slogan. His speeches lacked 
the usual fire and vim, and, in a few years after, he 
concluded to give his old age to the party of his 
youth. 

James T. Farley, who had quietly taken the bit- 
ter pill of defeat during the years of the war, was 
now in front. He had been prudent during the 
years of bitter strife; had tried to soften the asper- 
ity, and vindictiveness of both parties. He had 
remained with the Democrats when sure defeat 
awaited them. His uniform consistency won the 
confidence of the community. He also accepted 
the results of the war, and wished to cultivate peace 
and amity. 

In this campaign was the beginning of that con- 
tinuous wave of popularity which carried him into 
the United States Senate. 

The comparison of the vote with that of 1861, 
when he received less than one-third of the votes, 
must be to him a source of satisfaction. 

ELECTION RETURNS-SEPTEMBER, 1873. 



CANDIDATES. 



HARBOR COMMISSIONER. 

John W. Bost, (D.) 

Paul Neuman, (Ft ) 

SEN«TOR. 

J. T. Farley, (D.) 

John A. Eagon, (R.) 

ASSEMBLYMEN. 

W. H. Stowers, (0.) 

J. M. Johnson, (D.) 

L. Miller, (R.) 

J. A. Taggard, (R.) 

SHERIFF. 

Peter Fagan, (D.) 

J. Farnsworth , (R ) 

I. N. Randolph, (lnd.).... 

TREASURER. 

J. A. Buttterfield, (D.) . . . 

S. G. Spagnoli,(R.) 

CLERK. 

J. B. Stevens, (D.) 

B. F. Richtmyer, (R.) 

DISTRICT ATTORNEY. 

T. J. Phelps, (D.) 

M. W Gordon, (R.) 

ASSESSOR. 

J. W. Surface, (D.) 

S.C.Wheeler. (R.) 

SURVEYOH. 

W. L. McKimm, (D.) 

H. C. Meek, (R.) 

SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT. 

S. G. Briggs, (D.) 

H. L. Gould, (R.) 

CORONER. 

D. Mvers, (D.) 

3. S.'Hil, (R.; 



235 
176 

320 
106 

241 
218 

220 
171 

170 

1 V '!J 

69 

251 1 

174! 

291 
139 

224 
197 

280 

159 

2311 
193 

307 
120 

201, 

211 



115 
3S 110 



62 100 



124 



196:191 
105 146 



199 317 
1061 18 



200.183 
110 160 



39 



97 
43 
79 
27 

61 

22 
41 

95 
27 

39 

85; 

111 

12 



1195 



1382 
648 

1334 
939 

1171 
70S 

953 
733 
40S 

1257 
812 

10S7 
1017 

1185 
890 

1236 
787 

1317 
30 

12C4 

8P3 



B2 924 



OFFICERS ELECTED IN 1873. 

State Senator — James T. Farley (D.) 
Assemblymen — VV. H. Stowers (D.), Louis Mil- 
ler (E.) 

District Attorney— T. J. Phelps (D.) 
County Clerk— J. B. Stevens (D.) 



Sheriff— Peter Pagan (D.) 

County Treasurer— J. A. Butterfield (D.) 

County Surveyor — Wm. L. McKimm (D.) 

Assessor — J. W. Surface (D.) 

Superintendent of Schools — S. G. Briggs (D.) 

Coronor and Public Administrator — D. Myers (D.) 

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 

Township No. 1 — J. C. Shipman, Hugh Robin- 
son. 

Township No. 2 — L. Brusie, L. M. Earl. 
Township No. 3 — L. McLaine, L. Ludekins. 
Township No. 4 — J. A. Brown, C. K. Johnson. 
Township No. 5 — M. B. Church, B. S. Hinkson. 
Township No. 6. — S. Cooledge, L. G. Lewis. 

ALPINE COUNTY LEFT OUT IN THE ELECTION. 

When Alpine county was organized, in 1864, it 
was joined to Amador as a Legislative district, 
which was allowed one Senator and. two Assembly- 
men. It was a mutual understanding that Alpine 
should have one Assemblyman, and Amador the 
other, and the Senator. This arrangement was 
observed for two Legislative terms, but in 1871 and 
1873 the bargain was forgotten in the hurly burly of 
election, and Amador got the whole delegation. It 
happened, in this way, that Louis Miller, a Republi- 
can, was elected to the Assembly, though the party 
to which he belonged was in the minority. In 1874 
Alpine was joined to El Dorado for election purposes, 
and had no further political connection with Ama- 
dor. 

FINANCIAL MATTERS IN 1874. 

January 31st the outgoing Treasurer, O. Button, 
made the following report: — 

Cash in Treasury School Fund $10,338 19 

General Fund 13,904 36 

Outstanding Warrants on General 

Fund with interest 134,694 39 

Outstanding Warrants on Hospital 

Fund with interest 33, 185 34 

Certificates on Current Expense Fund, 

no interest 6,622 31 

Certificates on New Hospital Fund 735 00— $174,509 57 

Cash to Apply 13,964 36 

Total Indebtedness $160,504 21 

Value of Taxable Property $2,738,970 00 

Kate of Taxation '. 2 65 

Amount of Taxes 72.5S2 70 

Delinquent for 1873 7,169 74 

ASSESSMENT ROLL FOR 1874. 

Real Estate and Improvements . . .$1,724,140 00 

Personal Property 830,415 00 

Mines 503,780 03 

Improvements on same 194,310 00 

Ditches 61,080 00 

Telegraphs 90C 00— $3,314,625 00 

CONVENTION TO CONSIDER THE FUNDING PROJECT. 

The Grand Jury which met at the February term, 
C. C. Belding, foreman, recommended a serious effort 
to put the finances on a better basis; prorjoscd a 
general reduction of the salaries of officers, and a 
funding of the county indebtedness at a lower rate 
of interest, and proposed a general mass-meeting on 



*■ 



m ; 



j& ,**^: ; ^ 



K^^^ 









. 4k 



^ss%. 








*St,c 






1 fist I 



"W 








73^pC^^E3^c^ 



BUNKER HILL MINE, MILL AND REDUCTION WORKS. 

Israel W. Knox.Pres. near Amador City, Amador C° Cal. 



AT THE BEGINNING OF THE THIRD DECADE. 



117 



the 21st instant to consider the situation. The call 
for a convention was responded to by only a few 
individuals, who did not seem to have very clear 
ideas of how refunding the whole debt and issuing 
bonds bearing interest should lessen the taxes of the 
county, when a considerable portion of the indebted- 
ness was not bearing interest. The movement was 
scouted by some as a measure in the interest of the 
bond-holders, and by others advocated as an eco- 
nomical measm-e. Nothing resulted from it. 

POLITICAL MATTERS OF 1874. 

As there were neither national, State, or county 
elections during this year, the chapter on political 
matters will be much like the one said to have been 
written by Dean Smith on the snakes of Ireland, 
which consisted of the single line, " There are no 
snakes in Ireland" No momentous events occurred 
to disturb the serenity of those, who were comforta- 
bly seated at their desks in the Court House. The 
newspapers kept up the usual rattle of squibs and 
fire-crackers, and continued to take in the cash for 
Sheriff's sales, patent medicines, and " new goods for 
sale cheaper than ever at the old stand. " 

FINANCIAL MATTERS, 1875. 

March 1st. — J. A. Butterfield, County Treasurer, 
reported the outstanding warrants with interest — 

On Redemption Fund 8105,436 46 

Hospital " 21,130 58 

Certificates not bearing interest. .. 2,342 42— $12S,909 46 

The assessment roll for this year, was — 

Real Estate $977,188 00 

Improvements 766,S10 00 

Peisonal Property ' 799,787 00 

Money 25,158 00— $2,568,913 00 

Taxes were assessed on each one hundred dollars — 

For State Fund 60c 

General Redemption Fund 65c 

Current Expense Fund 74c 

Hospital Redemption Fund 20c 

Hospital Current Expense Fund 16c 

School Fund 20c 

Road Fund 5c— $2 60 

ROBBERY OF THE COUNTY TREASURY. 

This occurred on the night of the 9th of May, 
1875. The following account is made up from the files 
of the Dispatch of May 15, 1875:— 

Sometime in the night, the residence of the Treas- 
urer (Mr. Butterfield) was entered, and his pants 
rifled of the key to the inner lock of the safe, the 
outer one being a Bussey combination lock. The 
robbers then went to the Court House, unlocked the 
office door, opened the safe, and took out fifteen 
thousand two hundred and forty-eight dollars, most 
of .which belonged to the School Fund, consisting of 
fourteen thousand dollars in gold coin, one thousand 
two hundred and eight dollars in silver coin, and 
forty dollars in gold notes. The safe and room were 
then re-locked, and the prize carried away. There 
were two checks amounting to one thousand dollars, 
and some four or five hundred dollars in gold notes, 



which were not taken. When Mr. Butterfield awoke 
in the morning, he was affected with dizziness and 
a sickness of the stomach, and did not get up until 
after his usual hour of rising, and did not miss the 
loss of the pants until five o'clock. 

When Mr. Butterfield discovered the loss of the 
key, he suspected that a robbery had been com- 
mitted, and called upon several citizens to go to the 
Court House with him to examine the safe. They 
found the door of the office locked as usual; the safe 
was also in its usual condition, the outer door being 
locked, and apparently undisturbed. It yielded to 
the usual combination, but the larger portion of the 
money, amounting to fifteen thousand two hundred 
and forty-eight dollars, was missing. Some spots of 
candle-grease on the floor, were the only marks of 
disorder perceptible. 

A meeting of the Board of Supervisors was called 
to consider the matter. A reward of three thou- 
sand dollars was offered for the recovery of the 
treasure, and one thousand dollars for the conviction 
of the robbers. Some professional detectives were 
employed to make a thorough investigation into all 
the circumstances connected with the matter. They 
decided that it was next to impossible for any one, 
not acquainted with the combination, to open the 
door without breaking the lock, or to shut it when 
opened. On inquiry, it was found that the combi- 
nation was the one in use during the term of office of 
his predecessor, Mr. Button; that several persons 
besides the Treasurer knew the combination; James 
B. Stevens, the County Clerk, had once opened the 
safe during a temporary illness of the Treasurer, the 
combination having been written on a slip of paper 
for that purpose; that it was called off by another 
person in the hearing of several others — Mr. Stevens 
turning the handle to correspond with the letters 
called. 

The detectives were of the opinion that no robbery 
was committed on the night in question; that it had 
been abstracted at a time, or at different times, pre- 
vious to the 9th and 10th of May, by parties who 
were familiar with the combination. The wildest 
rumors were immediately afloat concerning the loss 
of the money. It was said that a syndicate of Court 
House officers with some outside friends, had been 
using the funds to speculate in stocks, which, at that 
time, were making and breaking fortunes for hun- 
dreds of lucky or unlucky men. As ten thousand 
dollars or more of the school funds wore frequently 
left in the safe for months, the use of it in a certain 
venture would do the county no harm. The ab- 
straction of the money with the intention of return- 
ing it, was not stealing. All this and much more 
was put forward as probable excuses for abstracting 
the public funds. In fact, it was confidently stated 
that a fortunate speculation was once made by a 
former Treasurer in that same way. 

The Treasurer bad erected a costly residence soon 
after coming into office. Ho was the owner of a 



118 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



saw-mill and could erect several bouses, If necessary, 

without taxing the mill above its powers, but be bad 
to bear a share of Ibe public rumors. The using of 
tbc old combination, which was known to several 
persons, was a matter which merited blame, and 
suspicion must necessarily rest upon all wbo were 
familiar with tbo combination and bad access to 
tbe safe. 

Some of the efforts to find the money were ludi- 
crous enough to set tbe public on the grin. Dr. 
Randall of lone, wbo is a firm believer in his power 
to call spirits up, or down, from the ethereal deep, 
and gather knowledge from their more than human 
wisdom, announced his ability to find the missing 
money, but the sibyls either knew nothing about it, 
or set him to digging in the wrong places, for its 
location is still a mystery — to the public. 

June 17, 1875. — At a special meeting of tbe Board 
of Supervisors, to consider the loss of the county 
funds, it was ordered that proceedings be immedi- 
ately commenced against the Treasurer and bonds- 
men, for the missing funds. 

It may be as Avell to anticipate the result, and 

make a connected history of the affair. At the 

close of Mr. Buttcrfield's term of office, two experts, 

employed to investigate the accounts, reported as 

follows: — 

*Cash on hand, March 2, 1874, on taking possession of 

the office $ 19,058 56 

Amounts received during two years as taxes on prop- 
erty 131,446 91 

Poll-taxes 6,834 45 

Licenses 6,311 81 

State apportionment 24,297 87 

Fines in Justices Courts 374 07 

Bonds forfeited 43 00 

Sales of lumber 10 00 

Sales of school lands 2,202 66 



Total receipts for two years $190,592 83 

DISBURSEMENTS. 

Warrants redeemed $132,995 55 

Paid State Treasurer 26,653 91 

Treasurer's Mileage 154 00 

Auditor's allowance 606 07 

Cash on hand, March 6 7,039 90 

Amount stolen. . . ; 15,248 00 

Accounts otherwise short 4,894 76— $190,592 83 

The deficit being 20,142 76 

This was incorporated into the judgment, which 
was obtained against the Treasurer and bondsmen, 
which, with costs, amounted to twenty-two thou- 
sand two hundred and ninety-two dollars and forty- 
six cents. 

"In the District Court, Eleventh Judicial District for 
the county of Amador. 

"Amador county, plaintiff, vs. J. A. Butterfield, et. 
al., defendants. 

"Itwasbeld by the Court that the custodian of 
the county funds was responsible to tbe county for 
them in all cases, except by acts of God, or a public 
enemy, in which cases there might be a doubt. As 
these conditions were not included in the plea of 
the defendants, they would not be considered. The 
Court ordered judgment to be entered against 
defendants for full amount of loss and costs, amount- 

*These figures are copied from newspaper reports, and are evi- 
dently incorrect. 



ing to twenty-two thousand two hundred and ninety- 
two dollars and forty-six cents." 

Tbe following sureties were included in the judg- 
ment, for the sums set opposite their names: — 



F. II. Hoffman . . 


.9 4,000 


Thos. Carpenter 


S 1,000 


Joseph Samuels _ 


. 3,000 


James Adams 


_ 2,000 


P. Rocco 


. 1,000 


P. A. Clute 


. 5,000 


A. Chicizola 


. 1,000 


Joseph Cunco.. 


. 2,000 


James Meeban. . 


. 14,000 


R. F. Fry 


2,000 


E. Muldoon 


. 5,000 


A. Rossi. 


. 1,000 


E. C. Palmer 


. 4,000 


J. Coleman 


_ 5.000 


E. Genochio 


. 2,000 


John Vogan 


3,000 


F. M. Whitmore 


. 1,000 


J. W. Surface 


. 3,000 


L. McLaine 


. 4.000 




. 3,000 


L. Cassinelli 


. 4,000 


J. P. Surface 


. 3,000 


Hiram Beigle 


. 5,000 


J. P. Martin 


. 10,000 


Chas. Stockier. . 


. 2,000 


F. Hutner 


. 5,000 


John Miller 


5,000 







CONCLUSION OF THE BUTTERFIELD MATTER, 1877. 

At a meeting of the Board of Supervisors in the 
early part of 1877, to take into consideration the 
Butterfield judgment for twenty-two thousand seven 
hundred and one dollars and thirty-one cents, it was 
ordered that the proposition of the defendants' 
attorneys, Farley and Porter, to pay the sum of six 
thousand dollars, in three annual installments with- 
out interest, be accepted, the payments to commence 
April 1, 1877. This compromise was considered best 
because the sureties resisted the payment of the full 
amount, and a long and costly suit being the alter- 
native. It was further said: "If we compel the 
sureties to pay the deficit, no future Treasurer could 
ever get bonds!" 

Mr. Butterfield undertook to work the matter out 
without loss to the bondsmen, and, though his 
health was much shattered by the unfortunate affair, 
it is nearly settled. Public opinion, much against 
bim at first, has become nearly unanimous that he 
was more sinned against than sinning; a victim 
rather than a criminal. No clue has yet been 
obtained to the missing money, though it is gener- 
ally thought to have gone iuto Flood and O'Brien's 
bank, through stock speculations. 

POLITICAL MATTERS IN 1875. 

The uniform success of the Democratic party 
during recent years, left the struggle principally for 
the nominations. Personal popularity was the basis 
for success iu the Convention. Although tbe national 
questions were discussed to some extent on the stump, 
it was done rather in obedience to custom than for 
any particular interest the people took in the matter. 
Judge Carter, Democratic nominee for the Assem- 
bly, was noted for suavity and pleasing address, and 
in bis progress through the county, mostly let poli- 
tics alone and dealt in personal reminiscences. 
Dunlap was a merchant in Sutter Creek, and though 
not a speaker, had the confidence of the community. 
Grecnwell, his adversary in Sutter Creek, and Brown 
of Jackson, though men of eloquence and ability, 
failed to make any inroad on the solid Democratic 



REVIEW FROM 1870 TO 1880. 



119 



vote. Brown was in charge of the Amador ditch, 
and was expending much money in the county. 
Peck and Aitken, candidates for County Clerk, were 
both good men, who stood high in the community; 
also in the societies to which they both belonged. 
Vogan! who does not know his bland face, twinkling 
with humor, which has carried sunshine along all the 
stage-roads since '49? There were no personal 
objections to the candidates on either side, and 
when the vote was counted the results were not 
unexpected. 

OFFICERS ELECTED IN 1875. 

Assembly — H. A. Carter, Thomas Dunlap. 

Sheriff — John Vogan. 

District Attorney — T. J. Phelps. 

Treasurer — James Meehan. 

Surveyor — W. L. McKimm. 

Assessor — J. J. Jones. 

Superintendent of Schools — W. H. Stowers. 

Coroner and Public Administrator — -D. Myers. 

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 

Township No. 1— H. Goldner, II. Robinson. 
" " 2— L. Brusie, L. M. Earle. 

" " 3— L. McLaine, L. Ludekins. 

" " 4— C. K. Johnson, L. B. Maxey. 

" " 5— M. B. Church. 

" " 6— E. R. Yates, S. G. Lewis. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
FINANCIAL MATTERS IN 1876. 

Political Parties in 1S76 — Election Returns by Precincts — Finan- 
ces in 1S77 —Political Parties in 1877 — Returns by Precincts 
— Death of the Honorable Robert Ludgate — Financial Mat- 
ters in 1S7S — Political Parties in 1S78 — Vote on the Adop- 
tion of the New Constitution — Financial Matters in 1879 — 
Political Matters in 1879 — Officers Elected — Effect of the 
New Constitution on the Judicial System — Financial Mat- 
ters in 1860 — Political Parties in 1SS0 — Amador County 
Election Returns Nov. 2, 18S0— Review from 1870 to 1SS0. 

On taking his seat, the Treasurer made a thorough 
examination of the records of the Treasury. It was 
found, notwithstanding the losses, that the finances 
were in a healthy condition. 

The outstanding warrants on the — 

General Fund §67,533 94 

Hospital Fund 16,713 46 

Certificates on Current Expense Fund . 4,191 48 
Interest Estimated at 28,963 73- 



-127,402 61 



Expenses for year ending March 1, 1875- 



Amount allowed on Current Expense 

Fund §21,319 17 

Amount allowed on Hospital Expense 

Fund 4,651 32— §25,973 49 

Expense for year ending March 4, 1876 — 

Amount allowed on Current Expense 

Fund §21,019 22 

Amount allowed on Hospital Expense 

' Fund 3,944 02— §24,963 24 



Total for two years §50,936 73 

The Treasurer made a calculation that, the taxes 
remaining the same, outstanding warrants on the 
General Eund would be redeemed in Jour years; 
the warrants on the Hospital Fund, in eight years. 



POLITICAL PARTIES IN 1876. 

All parties had heartily united in celebrating the 
Centennial. Whatever their differences of opinions 
as to the means of preserving the Union, there were 
none as to its value. War Democrats, peace Demo- 
crats, as well as Republicans, spoke from the same 
stand, with the same flag floating over them. No 
one, in listening to the orations, and judging from 
their tenor alone, would suppose that a few years 
previous, they had accused each other of treason, 
and all imaginable crimes. Talk is cheap. If pro- 
fessions of love and devotion to the Constitution and 
the country are cheap, so are charges of treason and 
corruption. People do not mean all they say, or 
say all they mean. 

It was evident that a close contest for the Presi- 
dency was impending. A few votes in Amador 
county might decide the vote of the State, and that 
of the State might decide the Presidential question. 
Four votes in the city of New York elected a Con- 
gressman, whose vote on the thirty-sixth ballot, 
made Thomas Jefferson President. John Quincy 
Adams was made President by a small number of 
votes in the same way. Though disagreeing little 
on Constitutional matters, and the payment of the 
national debts, the parties diverged widely as to 
details. Some were in favor of an unlimited amount 
of paper money. The Whig doctrines of 1836-40, 
were revived; only the advocates were found among 
the members of the hard money party of that day, 
while most of the Whigs, who, in former times, 
advocated paper money, were found in the ranks of 
Republicans, who Avere generally favorable to a gold 
and silver currency. Almost every one, old enough 
to have remembered those days when Jackson and 
Clay were the leaders of the opposing hosts, might 
have said with the Roman orator, " Times change, 
and we change;" for almost every one had changed 
positions. 

As usual, vituperations and accusations, charges 
of dishonesty and peculations, were made a large 
element in the campaign. Although Governor Tilden 
was instrumental in breaking up one of the most 
gigantic municipal rings that ever controlled a city 
government, and plundered the people, he was rep- 
resented as the incarnation of dishonesty, while the 
Republican party was charged with being the abettor 
of frauds, running through all the civil service. The 
administration, from the President down to tide- 
waiters, was represented as corrupt and dishonest. 
The "Solid South" was born in this campaign. The 
Democrats were charged with interfering with the 
freedom of elections in the Southern States, of trav- 
eling around the country in disguise, and whipping, 
maiming, and even killing, negroes who dared to 
vote the Republican ticket. According to the Repub- 
lican orators, no one could enjoy life or property in 
the old slave States, without conforming to their 
political creeds. It is not our purpose to write a 
history of the United States, or to discuss the politi- 



120 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



oal issues of that or any other day; but it may bo 
permissible to remark, thai a little of the good feel- 
ing, manifested In the Fourth of July celebration, car- 
ried into the canvass would have done neither party 
any barm, in votes or otherwise. It is quite prob- 
able, first, that scared)' anybody meant all they 
said, and second, that few men changed their minds 
or votes in consequence of mutual criminations. 

ELECTION RETURNS BY PRECINCTS. 



PRECINCTS. 



a 

P 

3 


W 
8 


W 
<-. 
o 

5 
u 


ft 

a 

C 

CD 


o 

p 
a 


P 
(D 








» 


B 





Jackson 

Clinton 

lone 

Lancha Plana 

Volcano 

Ham's Station 
Sutter Creek . 
Amador City. 

Diytown 

Forest Home . 

Plymouth 

Fiddletown . _ 
Enterprise 

Total 



273 1855 
51| 32 

157i 160 
39J 44 

162 131 
21 1 11 

173 204 

172 80 
66, 81 
20 37 
99! 136 
70 68 
12i 3 



13151172 



273 


185 


272 


51 


32 


51 


157 


160 


156 


38 


44 


38 


162 


131 


161 


21 


11 


t\ 


173 


204 


169 


172 


80 


172 


66 


81 


64 


20 


37 


19 


99 


136 


87 


70 


68 


70 


12 


3 


12 


1314 


1172 


1292 



185 
32 

160 
45 

132 
11 

208 
79 
83 
38 

147 

68 

3 



1191 



It may be mentioned as a remarkable occurrence, 
that the vote at this election approximated the usual 
vote on county officers, falling only one hundred 
short of the vote the following year. 

FINANCES IN 1877. 

The Supervisors reported, March 1, 1877 — 

Total receipts for three years as $169,05S 48 

Cash an hand at the beginning of the 

Term 1874 23,767 19— $192,825 67 

Disbursements during same time $167,513 36 

On hand $16,312 31 

October 1st the Treasurer reported — 

Outstanding warrants on 

General Fund $52,689 23 

Hospital Redemption Fund 14,502 39 

Current Expense Fund ; . . . 11,351 84 

Hospital Expense Fund 1,016 21 

Unclassified 89 86 

Deficiency 65 80— $79,715 33 

This does not include interest. It is not probable 
that any accurate estimate of interest had been made 
up to this date, as it was considered the work of sev- 
eral weeks to go over the outstanding warrants and 
estimate the interest due; hence the apparent con- 
tradictions in annual reports. In other instances 
reports, made before and after the collections of the 
annual tax, showed a great reduction of the debt 
when, considering the whole year, no reduction had 
been made. In March, Judge Williams, of the Dis- 
trict Court, decided that the warrants only bore 
seven per cent, interest, this applying to all that 
were issued previous to 1868, as well as since. 



POLITICAL PARTIES IN 1877. 

The occurrence of the county election again 
brought out a new crop of aspirants. This season 
Amador was joined with San Joaquin as a Sen- 
atorial District, the later county being entitled to one 
for itself, and another jointly with Amador. James 
T. Farley, who had been Senator for two successive 
terms, was now a candidate for the U. S. Senate, and 
declined a re-election. Frank Brown, who had had 
some experience in a former canvass as candidate for 
the Assembly, was nominated a joint Senator with 
San Joaquin. Dunlap, the former member, and R. 
Ludgate of lone, a popular man, were nominated for 
the Assembly by the Democrats, Judge Carter hav- 
ing declined a re-election. Eagon, who was now 
working well in the Republican ranks, and James 
Johnston of lone, a pioneer and universally liked, 
were nominated by the Republicans for the same 
positions. Vogan, incumbent, was re-nominated for 
Sheriff, running against Frank Howard of Sutter 
Creek. Meehan, Treasurer, was also re-nominated. 
Caminetti, a young and active lawyer, popular with 
everybody in general, especially the ladies, received 
the nomination of District Attorney at the hands of 
the Democrats against J. S. Hill, a well-known pio- 
neer, nominated by the Republicans. Henry Peck, 
County Clerk, was re-nominated by the Democrats. 
Tom Chicizola receiving the Republican nomination. 
The men were all popular in their respective pre- 
cincts, and were expected to make large inroads into 
the votes of their opponents. Brown and Eagon did 
the heavy speaking for the Republicans, Caminetti 
doing similar service for the Democrats. Mr. Farley, 
however, though not on the ticket, as usual led the 
Democratic forces. The matter of electing a delega- 
tion to the Legislature favorable to his aspirations to 
the Senatorship, was an important element in the 
canvass, which was remarkable for the good feeling 
and absence of the usual vituperation and abuse. 

ELECTION RETURNS— 1877. 



CANDIDATES. 



SENATOR. 

Oullahan (D.) 

Brown (R.) 

ASSEMBLYMEN. 

Ludgate (D.) 

DunUp (D.) 

Eagon (R . ) 

Johnston (R.) 

SHERIFF. 

Vogan (D.) 

Howard (R.) 

CLERK. 

Peck (D.) 

Chichizola ;R.) 

DISTRICT ATTORNEY. 

Caminetti (D.I 

Hill (R.) 

TEASURER. 

Meehan 'D.) 

rotter (R.) 

CORONER. 

Freeman (R.) 

Giles m.) 

SCHOOL SL'P'T. 

Norton (R.) 

Edsinger (D.) 

SURVEYOR. 

W. L. McKimm (R). 



2n7 



45 



170 166 
103217 

165164 
175206 

103 220 
99 167 

173131 

102 251 

17311SS 

96 201 



■201 



22 
31 

24 
24 
26 
31 

28 
25 

28 
25 

23 
30 

22 
31 

22 

31 

23 

3o,ii5ln;5 

31 :03 173 



191249 
31346 

181354 
17 1315 
5 1267 

41202 

19 1409 
31185 

19 1477 
31106 

18 1366 
41217 

131356 
81217 

1S1-5I 
41241 

181201 
4 1306 

1262 




Mountain Springs .Ranch and Tculhduse of JOHNVOGAN. 
ione & Jackson Road. Amador County, Cal. 



REVIEW FROM 1870 TO 1880. 



121 



JUSTICES OF THE PEACE ELECTED 1878. 

Township No. 1 — S. G. Spagnoli, II. Goldner. 

Township No. 2 — L. Brusie, L. M. Earlo. 

Township No. 3 — L. Ludekin, L. Huey. 

Township No. 4 — J. Gundry, J. B. Maxcy. 

Township No. 5— M. B. Church. 

Township No. 6 — S. G. Lewis, S. Cooledge. 

The list of retui'ns is well worth a study. It will 
be seen that each candidate made large inroads into 
his opponent's vote in his own district, also, that 
when the vote was counted, there was a great uni- 
formity in the majorities. 

DEATH OF THE HON. ROBERT LT7DGATE. 

This occurred February 15, 187S, while in Sacra- 
mento attending, as far as his failing health would 
allow, to his duties as Legislator. lie was born in 
the county of Waterford, Ireland, and was forty- 
four years old at the time of his death. He came to 
the United States in 1850, and a year later to 
California, settling in lone valley, where he built 
up a home. He was a man of warm feelings, 
active temperament, strong convictions, and un- 
doubted integrity, winning the respect and esteem 
of all with whom he became acquainted. His death 
was not unexpected, as he had been suffering for 
many years from a pulmonary disease. A committee 
of both houses was appointed to escort his remains 
to lone, and assist in the funeral ceremonies. 

FINANCIAL MATTERS IN 1878. 

Rates of taxes: — 

For State Fund 55 c. 

Gen. Redemption Fund 57-^0. 

Current Expense " 65 c. 

Hoi-pital Red'ption " 15Jc. 

Hospital Current Expense Fund 20 c. 

School Fund 24 c. 

Road " ' 13 c— $2.50 

November 4tl), the Treasurer reported 
outstanding warrants on Current 

Expense Fund $10,947 98 

Hospital Current Expense Fund... 224 S3 

Salary • "... 2,530 15 

General Redemption " ... 43,032 74 

Hospital " "... 10,138 63— $66,S74 33 

This does not seem to include interest, which two years before 

was estimated at $38,963.73. 

This would carry the debt to upwards of $100,000. 

POLITICAL PARTIES IN 1878. 

The usual political problems were postponed to 
consider the matter of framing a new Constitution. 
Fur once in our history the people were engaged in 
discussing the first principles of government. The 
overshadowing growth of the great railroad com- 
pany, which had extended its Briarian arms, so as to 
bring every industry, whether mercantile, agricultu- 
ral, or mechanical, under its influence; the growth of 
the gas and water companies in the cities; the appro- 
priation of the streams flowing from the mountains 
by the ditch and water companies; the holding of 
large tracts of land, amounting in some instances to 
one hundred thousand acres, for purely speculative 
purposes, as well as many other similar institutions, 
16 



caused a general fear in the State, that a few were 
soon to have the wealth, and that poverty was to be 
the inheritance of the workers. In the cities the 
agitation was greatest among the day laborers, 
who beheld a favored few — unjustly favored in the 
minds of the laborers — rolling along the streets in 
easy carriages, while they, who had built the houses, 
worked the mines, and made the property, were 
working for barely enough to obtain the merest 
necessaries of life. In San Francisco, Sacramento, 
and Stockton, socialistic sentiments prevailed to a 
great extent, and at one time, when Kearney was 
organizing the workers, as well as those who never 
did nor would work, into a voting party, the pros- 
pect of a forcible distribution of property was quite 
imminent. Hundreds of fierce, brutal faces hung on 
his words and listened for the expected order to help 
themselves to all they wanted, and, also, take satis- 
faction for past sufferings and injuries. 

During the working of the placer mines, when any 
one who would work could make three dollars or 
more per day, thousands wasted their earnings on 
cards, whisky, or women. A stream of gold flowed 
to the cities, building up stores, dwellings, and big 
bank accounts, leaving the worked-out gulches and 
hills, and the old, worn-out, dilapidated miners as the 
heritage of the country that furnished the wealth. 
Many of these demoralized miners drifted towards 
the cities, following the wake of their departed 
means, and, homeless, hopeless, and useless, joined 
the city vagrants in their efforts to compel the resti- 
tution of their wasted wealth, their sole political aim 
being to " give old monej^-bags hell." 

In the country, especially in Amador county, 
the agitation was on a different basis. Here were 
numerous small proprietors, owning ten to one 
hundred acres of laud stocked with a few cattle 
and sheep, who did their own work, and who, by 
industry and close economy, could make both 
ends of saving and expenditure meet at the end of 
the year. Every year the Assessor came around and 
made a note of every pig, chicken, or cow that was 
about the place. The land, as well as improvements, 
was assessed up to full value. If, in consequence of 
sickness or a failure of crops, the farmer had been 
compelled to mortgage his home to keep things 
going, the taxes remained unabated. It was known 
that men with large sums of money loaned out at 
high interest, paid nominal taxes. \Vheu money 
could be made to pay two or three per cent, per 
month it Avas forthcoming, but when taxes were 
assessed it was a nonentity. It was like the little 
joker under Lucky Bill's* fingers: now you could see 
it, but when the thimble was lifted it was not there. 

It was known that large tracts of land that were 
held for purely speculative purposes, paid only a 

•William Thornton (Lue'ty Bill) made a hundred thousand 
dollars or more in l'lacerville, in 1S50, with a piece of sponge, 
which he dexterously played under two or three thimbles. He 
induc3d thousands of men to bet a hundred on finding it, gener- 
ally taking in the money. 



122 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



nominal tax. It was believed that the producing 
class boro tho brunt of taxation, while corporated 
companies and dealers in stocks virtually escaped. 

Tho subject of taxation was discussed at every fire- 
side in tho county. The farmers and gardeners had 
no feelings in common with tho socialist or com- 
munist. Dennis Kearney could not have raised a 
corporal's guard who would indorse bis theory of 
political economy. But tho feeling of distrust 
towards capitalists, for a short time, united the most 
antipodal extremes, and found tho farmers voting 
with city proletariats. This was manifested less in the 
election of delegates than in the vote to adopt the 
Constitution afterwards framed. The non-partisan 
ticket prevailed, Wm. H. Prouty, a farmer of Jack- 
son valley, and John A. Eagon, a lawyer, being 
elected delegates to the Constitutional Convention. 
The selection of these two was evidently a compro- 
mise or union of the solid parts of both Republican 
and Democratic parties, as a measure of defense 
against the wild theories of the Kearney party in 
the cities. 

THE VOTE ON ADOPTION OF THE NEW CONSTITUTION 

» 

Showed a preponderance of the farming interest for 
the Constitution, and of the mining interest against 
it, lone City, which was the center of the farming 
population, giving seventy-one majority for the Con- 
stitution, while Amador, Plymouth, Drytown and 
Volcano were as decidedly against, the former town 
giving nearly ten to one. This overwhelming oppo- 
sition was ascribed to the influence of the mine 
owners, who induced the workmen to believe the 
mills would stop under the new Constitution. 

For. Against. 

Amador 20 190 

Clinton 34 * 28 

Drytown 21 115 

Enterprise ... 1 14 

Forest Home 15 31 

Ham's Station 8 5 

lone City 174 103 

Jackson 207 207 

Oleta 62 45 

Lancha Plana.. 32 53 

Plymouth 70 166 

*Sutter Creek 224 133 

Volcano 140 171 

Total 1008 1261 

Majority for adoption, 253. 

FINANCIAL MATTERS IN 1879. 

Tax rates : — 

For State Purposes 62^c. 

General Redemption Fund 57fe. 

Expense Fund 67|c. 

Hospital Redemption Fund lo^c. 

Hospital Current Expense Fund 20c. 

School Fund 24c. 

Road Fund 13c— $2 60 



*Sutter Creek seemed to have voted differently from the other 
mining towns. This was owing to a partial resuscitation of the 
Miners' League. 



ASRESSMENT ROLL. 

Real Estate $925,409 00 

Improvements 979, 110 00 

Personal Pr-perty 661,369 00 

Money 12, 183 00— $2,578,071 00 

Taxes on the same 07,307 78 

State Portion 10,179 75 

County Portion 51, 128 03— $67,307 78 

TREASURER'S REPORT, OCTOBER 31, 1879. 

Outstanding Warrants on — 

Current Expense Fund $ 7,057 66J 

Hospital Expense Fund 1,536 48 

Salary Expense Fund 8,450 95 

General Redemption Fund, 41,812 34 

Hospital Redemption Fund 8,600 38— $07,463 81 J 

Cash in treasury to apply 24,847 61 

Total Indebtedness $42,611 20J 

As this report was made previous to the applica- 
tion of the current year's revenue, it shows an undue 
amount of debt. 

January 31st, following — 

The indebtedness, exclusive of interest. $69,493 76 

Cash in Treasury to apply 61,060 31 

Leaving $8,433 45 

POLITICAL MATTERS IN 1879. 

The election following the Constitutional Conven- 
tion, would naturally partake of the peculiar char- 
acter of the previous year's canvass; but it seemed 
that the reaction setting in over the State, was felt 
also in Amador county. The impracticability of 
righting all wrongs by statute law, became manifest 
as the Convention set about the work, so that the 
fierce and positive opinions became considerably 
modified in the course of a few months. The elec- 
tion of most of the old officers was a natural result. 
Where new ones were substituted, men of moderate 
opinions were chosen. Dr. Brusie, an old resident 
of the county, and a highly esteemed man, never 
had been active in politics, and was elected more 
for his personal popularity, than for any speeches 
he had made on the stump. The same might be 
said of R. C. Downs, who had resided in the county 
for thirty years. He had been engaged in quartz 
mining most of the time, in which vocation he had 
been eminently successful, having opened and devel- 
oped some of the richest mines in the county, as 
early as 1851. Fontenrosc, the new County Clerk, 
was a young man, born of Italian parents, and edu- 
cated in the county. He received the full Republi- 
can vote, and also many of the votes of Democratic 
Italians. This class of foreign citizens formerly 
voted the Democratic ticket unanimously, but the 
solidarity is being broken up, and in a few years 
they are likely to divide on all political questions. 

Judge Moore, elected to the position of Superior 
Judge, is a young and promising lawyer, and fills 
the position with honor to himself, and satisfaction 
to all who bring business before him. 

It will be observed that B. F. Langford, State 
Senator, is a resident of San Joaquin county, which, 
three years before, was joined to Amador as a joint 
Senatorial District, for one Senator. As Amador 



REVIEW FROM 1870 TO 1880. 



123 



had the nomination of the first Senator on that 
plan, the second fell to San Joaquin. 

OFFICERS ELECTED. 

Superior Judge — Geo. Moore. 

State Senator — B. F. Langford. 

Assemblymen — L. Brusie, R. C. Downs. 

District Attorney — A. Caminetti. 

County Clerk — L. J. Fontenrose. 

Sheriff — John Vogan. 

Treasurer — James Meehan. 

Surveyor — J. A. Brown. 

Assessor — A. Petty. 

Superintendent Schools — L. Miller. 

Coroner and Public Administrator — n. Schacht. 

THE NEW CONSTITUTION AND THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM. 

At the general election held in the month of Sep- 
tember, 1879, the people adopted the new Constitu- 
tion, which took effect on the first day of January 
succeeding. 

By the provisions of this instrument the entire 
judicial system of the State was revolutionized, and 
new courts succeeded to the powers and jurisdiction 
of the old ones. Prior to January, 1880, Hon. George 
E. Williams, of El Dorado county, was the Judge of 
the District Court, embracing within its territorial 
boundaries, the counties of Amador, Calaveras, and 
El Dorado; and Hon. A. C. Brown was the Judge of 
the County Court of Amador county. 

By the new Constitution the combined jurisdiction 
of these two tribunals in this county, was merged 
into one court — called the " Supreme Court of the 
County of Amador," with one Judge, who was 
elected at the general election in 1879, and took his 
seat on the first Monday in January, 1880. 

At that time, Hon. George Moore, of Jackson, 
was elected to the position of " Superior Judge," 
for a term of five years. Judge Moore is a native of 
Kentucky, a regular graduate of Centre College, 
and at the date of his elevation to the bench was 
about thirty years of age, being one of the youngest 
Superior Court Judges in the State. 

This new judicial system, which establishes and 
keeps open at all times, a court of general common 
law, equity, and criminal jurisdiction in each county 
of the State, would, it was thought, greatly facilitate 
the speedy trial of causes, and prove more econom- 
ical in everyway, both to litigants and tax-payers. 

Having now watched its workings for one year, 
we are satisfied that these expectations are being 
fully realized. In this, and indeed in every county 
throughout the State, we find that it is daily growing 
in popularity with both bar and bench, as well as 
with • the people. We no longer hear from any 
quarter, the many complaints in reference to the 
delay and expense incident to litigation under the 
old system; but all who arc best posted touching 
these matters, unite in saying that the change was 
one much needed, and one which will promote the 
best interests of the entire State. 



FINANCIAL MATTERS IN 1880. 

At the close of the fiscal year the Treasurer 
reported outstanding warrants on — 

Current Expense Fund $10,101 71 

Salary Fund 7,344 41 

Hospital Expense Fund . . 456 57 

Eedemption Fund, excluding interest.. 41,812 34 

Hospital Eedemption Fund 8,601 38— $69,493 76 

Cash in Treasury to apply 61,060 31 

Indebtedness exclusive of interest $8,433 45 

It would have been more satisfactory to have 
known the exact amount, but the calculations of 
interest seem to be repulsive to most persons except 
those who are to receive it. The most careless reader 
will perceive that the debt is being gradually extin- 
guished, however, forming a pleasing contrast to the 
end of the previous decade, when the principal was 
one hundred thousand dollars, and the interest as 
much more, amounting to two hundred and eight 
thousand dollars, with habits of careless extrava- 
gance to add to the burden. 

POLITICAL PARTIES OF 1880. 

With the return of the Presidential campaign 
came the resort to abuse. It looks like folly to recur 
so often to these things. Those who, for the first 
time, vote the Presidential ticket might imagine that 
it was possible that a rascal had wriggled into the 
nomination. Those whose memory extends back a 
half century, or whose reading extends over the hun- 
dred years of our national existence, will know that 
this personal abuse is peculiar to no age, no Presi- 
dential campaign, no year; that it does not depend 
upon malaria in the atmosphere or dyspepsia pre- 
vailing in the national stomach, but is incidental to a 
free discussion ©f political matters, whether by a 
mob of Athenians, a body of dignified Senators, or a 
crowd of sand-lot political economists. No man, 
however exalted his character, can expect to escape. 
Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, and Lincoln, men 
whom a grateful posterity have enshrined, felt tho 
bitterness of vindictive misrepresentation. At the 
close of Washington's administration, a resolution 
approving his administration and recommending his 
successors to follow in his footsteps, met the fiercest 
opposition. Mr. Giles, Senator from Virginia, Wash- 
ington's own State, remarked: " I do not consider his 
administration an able one; on the contrary, I think it 
is to his imbecility and cowardice that we owe all our 
misfortunes." Probably no President ever received 
severer language on the floor of Congress. Quite a 
number of men voted against the resolution, among 
the number being Andrew Jackson, then a Senator 
by appointment from the recently admitted State of 
Tennessee. The Philadelphia Aurora, a leading 
Republican paper, commenced an article, on tho day 
spoken of, in this wise: — 

"'Lord lettest thou now thy servant depart in 
peace, for mine eyes have seen the glory of thy salva- 
tion.' If ever any nation had reason to utter this, 
it is this nation. If any people ever had occasion to 



124 



HISTORY OF A.MADol! COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



utter it, it is this people, for this d:iy the author of all 

our woes retires 10 private life. Let him go to that 
retirement which he so much desires." 

And much more of tin: same sort. Volumes could 
bo filled wiih the written and spoken abuse of our 
best men; but it is not the province of this work to 
contain a history of the United States. The vituper- 
ation, the charges of treason, cowardice, dishonesty, 
and everything else conceivable that is bad, that 
were hurled at the distinguished men who were 
candidates for the Presidency, are the subjects of mys- 
tery. That Garfield should have sold himself for 
three hundred and twenty-nine dollars, or that Han- 
cock contemplated handing his army over to the 
rebels, is, now that the campaign is over, too absurd 
to deserve a thought. How people can bring them- 
selves to such a mental condition is mysterious, but 
it is probably the same faculty of imagination which 
induced a man to think he had married an angel 
and then induced him to larrup her within an inch of 
her life in less than a week from the wedding day. 
The election passed off, and as the sun went down 
so did the passions and anger which the occasion had 
engendered, the smoke of the jubilee bonfires and 
powder being the last of it. 

ELECTION RETURNS -1880. 



CANDIDATES. 



PRESIDENT. 

Hancock (D.) 

Garfield (R.) 

CONGRESS. 
J. R. Glascock (D.). 
H. F. Page (R.).... 

ASSBMBLYMKN. 

Thomas Dun'ap(D.). 

C. B. Swift (D.) 269 

J. A. Eagon(R.) |239 

Chapman Waikins(R.). 



•231 



58 146 
23 141 



53 



a. > 



17|166 1S2 
11 106.21S 

17 163 183 

11 103,214 

16 ISO 204 
17|157|1S3 

12 86 102 
11 112 216 



27 132 
39 185 

27 130 

39 186 
I 

27 1.'3 
25 133 

40 176 
39 186 



1411 
1345 



74 139S 
53 1343 



1377 
1381 
1245 
139S 



The careful reader will see that the average Dem- 
ocratic majority has been decreasing for some years, 
being less than one hundred where it was formerly 
three hundred. The two persons elected to the Leg- 
islature were new men. Swift, a man of reading and 
culture, had modestly kept in the background until 
forced to accept a nomination. Warkins is a profes- 
sional miner, who has studied the structure of veins 
wall rocks, dips, and strikes, more than tariffs and 
taxes. He is a man of mature judgment and inflex- 
ible integrity, and is not likely to be bribed or led 
into the support of vicious legislation. 

REVIEW FROM 1870 TO 1880. 

At the beginning of this decade the county was 
two hundred and eight thousand dollars in debt; the 
population was decreasing; the placer mines had 
become comparatively exhausted; the population, 
being made up largely of women and children, 
instead of the stalwart, healthy men who settled 
the country, had become less self-sustaining, and 
a general decline in all industrial industries seemed 
imminent. The towns of Sutter and Amador alone 
seemed to be in a flourishing condition. These 



towns furnished the best market for lumber, wood, 
and agricultural products, and in one way and 
another contributed towards sustaining every indus- 
try. We have seen the effect of economy in county 
expenditures, which, without increasing the rate of 
taxation, has so worn away the public debt that it is 
expected to call in the last outstanding warrant by 
the first of January, 1884:. Though quartz mining 
has mostly ceased in Sutter Creek, where its annual 
productions once reached millions, it has been placed 
on a paying basis in several places (notably Volcano 
and Ptymouth), where it was not profitable before, 
and largely increased in other places, as Amador and 
Jackson. New mines arc being opened at several 
places which bid fair to lival, in richness and perma- 
nency, the once rich mines of Sutter Creek. Agri- 
culture has received a new impetus, and small 
vineyards, orchards, and farms, are appearing on the 
hill-sides and valleys, which are made to teem with 
life by means of the water from the mining ditches. 
The population is increasing in numbers, the cen- 
sus returns showing an increase of one thou- 
sand seven hundred and forty since 1870, being 
nearly twenty per cent. More permanent buildings 
are being erected, and more extensive farming oper- 
ations contemplated. The population have less 
expectation of getting rich suddenly, and are more 
willing to labor for a fair compensation. Better 
school-houses are being erected and the attendance 
is more constant, showing better results in every 
way. 

The once common vices of gambling and drinking 
with the usual accompaniments of lewdness and 
obscenity, are vanishing before a healthy public opin- 
ion, a sense of self-respect taking the place of the 
recklessness of early days. Most of the surround- 
ings are conducive to the building up of peaceful, hon- 
orable industries, and an industrious and virtuous 
community. 

Note. — Those who undertake to verify the statistics of the 
last two chapters, will discover many inaccuracies. They have 
been compiled from newspapers, the orrhial reports not being 
accessible. Only professional statisticians, like DeBow or 
Walker, can handle large columns of figures without confusing 
them. Though imperfect in detail, the general results are sub- 
stantially correct. The publishers give them as the best attain- 
able. 





•Thompson &■ wesr fve,o*xinNo cal. 



GEOLOGY OF AMADOR COUNTY. 



125 



CHAPTER XXY. 

GEOLOGY OF AMADOR COUNTY. 

Strata in Buena Vista Mountain — Carboniferous Clays — Granitic 
Sandstone — Glacial Epoch — Supposed Section of the Mount- 
ains — Former Course of the Rivers — Account of the Blue 
Lead — Stratified Rocks — Serpentine Range — Chromate of 
Iron. 

Some account of its geology seems absolutely 
necessary in connection with the extensive mining 
interests; yet it is rather dangerous ground to 
step on. Every day is bringing some discovery; 
which sweeps away an old and well-established 
opinion. To write an opinion of its geology may 
subject one to the fate experienced by Dr. Lardnei-, 
who wrote a very copious book, demonstrating 
beyond a doubt the impossibility of crossing the 
ocean by steam. About the time the book was well 
out, a steamer crossed the ocean, without paying 
any attention to the impossibility. It would be of 
little use to the majority of the readers of this book 
to tell them that the slates were what is called 
hypogene schistose, by'some authors, to signify that they 
might have come from the earth in an injection 
between the vertical rocks; or met amorphic slates by 
others, to signify that they had been altered by 
heat, or other causes; that these slates were gen- 
erally metaliferous, and that veins of ores of all kinds 
might be found in such rocks. These matters are 
known to scientific readers, and are but the skeleton 
parts, which must be clothed with a thousand accom- 
panying facts to make geology a living, interesting 
topic. The limits of this work will not permit a full 
treatise of the geology of this county, even if the 
author were fully able,' which is not the case. Only 
the most obvious and important matters, with the 
proofs that can be seen without much trouble or 
expense, will be noticed. 

A large volume might be written on the subject, 
without exhausting it; and years, aye, a life-time, 
might be spent in the study of geology, and still 
only penetrate the outer precincts of the science. 
A distinguished geologist, who had given a quarter 
of a century to the study, said if one could live a 
thousand years he might know something about it. 
While the author disclaims any pi*etensions to pro- 
found knowledge of this subject, in justice to him- 
self and readers, he claims to have given it much 
thought. Twenty-five years' residence in the county, 
close and careful observation, with perhaps as much . 
reading as generally falls to a laboring man, has 
given him an opportunity to apjn'ceiate, if not to 
master, the difficulties of some of the problems in 
geology. As scarcely one of the subscribers to this 
work will claim or acknowledge any skill in this 
science, the writer may be excused for treating it 
in a popular manner. If some one of our young 
readers may be induced to give the subject his atten- 
tion, if only one Hugh Miller, is kindled with a 
desire to be able to read the records of creation, as 
told by the rocks, and shall give a score of years of 



active, vigorous life, to the examination of the sub- 
ject, so as to bo able to give the world a trite geology, 
the writer will have been a thousand times remuner- 
ated. 

TIME. 

In treating of geology, I must ask my readers to 
make a free use of time. Let thousands, aye, hun- 
dreds of thousands of years enter into our calcu- 
lations without fear of using up that part of the 
material, for Nature is never pressed for time. No 
matter how small the yearly progress, time will 
accomplish great changes. Those who have given 
chronology thorough study, think they can trace 
the creation back six hundred nillions of years. Let 
us consider too that change, if not life, is the inher- 
ent quality of all matter; that no form is permanent; 
that the " eternal hills" is true not for a day even; 
that the loftiest mountain, buttressed with granite, 
was once sleeping beneath the sea, and will again; 
that the deep sea holds mountain chains in her 
bosom, that will, in their own good time, emerge to 
the light. 

As all stratified rocks, or at least such as we are 
likely to meet with, were once horizontal, let us go 
back in imagination to the time when the deep sea 
was rolling over our own Sierra Nevadas. We must 
not hesitate in the cause of science, to sink also the 
Utah basin, and even the Rocky Mountains. It 
matters not that some of our sarcastic friends tell us 
that we have no ground to stand on; that will 
appear presentby. We have now the sea, deep as 
the Atlantic, rolling over the future Great West. 
Only a portion of the continent, perhaps the White 
Mountains and Apalachian range, are yet out of the 
sea. It is during these immensely long periods that 
the slates and the rocks, the future sources of min- 
eral wealth, are deposited in the deep sea. Age 
after ago (time is no object) the deposit goes on, 
perhaps the thousandth part of an inch a year. 
Minerals, suspended or in solution in the water, may 
be brought and deposited, either by precipitation or 
by gravity, and compounded into the mass. Every 
one has seen how iron is precipitated by a small 
particle of sea-weed along the shore, the iron in turn 
uniting with something el*e — lime, salt, magnesia, 
potash, silex, alumina, and, perhaps, gold and silver, 
through chemical changes that are constantly inter- 
mingling, changing, and forming new compounds. 
The coral insect goes to work, and, laying hold of 
each particle of lime that comes along, incorporates 
it into a solid reef — the future limestone ranges of 
the continent that is forming. The smallest insect, 
the infusoria, finding the water charged with silex, 
lays hold of the atoms, builds its tiny shells so small 
that a thousand millions would not make an inch, and 
patiently, year after year, age after age, piles up the 
little shells, until five, ten, perhaps fifty feet of infuso- 
rial earth forms the material for the quartz veins of 
our continent yet to be. Ten thousand, twenty thou- 
sand, and sometimes fifty thousand feet of various min- 



120 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



erals may be deposited in this way, all this matter 
being Blowly worn away from some pre-existing land, 
which perhaps has had a birth in a former cycle. 
As the materia] accumulates and acquires depth, the 
internal heat of the earth, which is manifested in all 
deep mines, by an increase of temperature of one 
degree for each sixty feet or thereabouts, begins to 
facilitate and perhaps produce chemical changes in 
the first formed strata, which soon lose their former 
texture and become our future metamorphic, or, as 
they were formerly called, the hypogene schistose 
rocks. Allowing an increase of one degree for each 
sixty feet, we have for a depth of forty thousand 
feet a heat of six hundred or more degrees, and 
making allowance for rents and seams permeating 
the mass, probably much greater in places. And 
now for some unknown reason, the great mass, so 
long quiet, slowly arises out of the water, not all at 
once, but in long, parallel reef's, one preceding the 
other perhaps by ages; low and marshy at first, but 
soon, geologically speaking, assuming shape. Wheth- 
er from a greater force of upheaval or from a weak- 
ness or want of cohesion, some of these ranges, or 
axes of elevation, break for great distances, and 
granite is erupted, forming mountains, down whose 
sides water begins to run, carrying the detritus or 
decay into the new valleys. The mineral matters, 
having undergone great changes in the depth of the 
earth, appear, perhaps, concentrated into veins. 

Now, let us consider for a moment the appearance 
of these different strata. At first horizontal and 
existing in floors and parallel layers, they are now 
distorted, bent in places into the shape of a " TJ," 
in others into a " Y " shape, the lower parts being 
still down thousands of feet in the earth, subject to 
the six hundred or more degrees of heat, which were 
before referred to. If we could see the strata in its 
shape where the mountain chains are being elevated, 
it would present an appearance something like a 
hundred or more layers of cloth pressed edgewise 
together, thus: — 




The reader will not for a moment consider that the 
different layers of rock will hold together like cloth; 
we have supposed the breakage to take place where 
the greatest strain occurred, which would be on the 
top of the bends or bights. We must also consider 
these bends, anywhere from ten to twenty miles 
apart, or at least twice the thickness of our deposit 
in the sea, though these mountain elevations may 
be hundreds or even thousands of miles apart, in 
which case we might have a valley like the space 



between the Alleghany and Rocky Mountains, or 
with unequal elevations, we might have a valley like 
the space between the Sierra Nevada and Rocky 
Mountains with short ranges interspersed. 

We have presumed upon the tops of these bights 
or axes of upheaval, breaking so as to expose the 
lower lying strata. In fact, denudation would set 
in and the tops of these elevations would be cut off 
nearly to the line of the primitive or granitic rocks. 
It is now evident that the lower or first formed 
rocks, being the hardest or most highly metamor- 
phosed, would form the tops of the ridges, even 
where the granite had not cropped out. 

The formation of mountain ranges is a thing of 
past ages, but is a product of forces still in operation. 
Slowly the Coast Range is emerging from the sea, 
and along the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, 
as well as the Coast 'Range, are indisputable marks of 
a former sea-shore, when both ranges of mountains 
and the intervening valley were some hundreds of 
feet lower than at present. How many of these axes 
of elevation occur in the Sierra Nevadas, may not 
be determined, but it is quite certain that the higher 
mountains were, so to speak, in active operation 
while the foot-hills, where the principal mines are, 
were still the floor of the ocean. It is also certain 
that the older or higher ranges had auriferous quartz 
veins, while the present worked veins were either 
unformed or slumbering in the depths of the sea. 
Those who have never studied the rocks, except to 
learn their economic value, can form but little idea 
of the history of their creation, which their texture, 
quality and locality relate. A boy who picks up a 
rounded quartz pebble considers it a good article 
with which to pelt a dog or knock a squirrel out of a 
tree; a gravel miner would consider it an indication of 
a hill deposit, and forthwith would commence a shaft 
on the top of the nearest hill; while a railroad man 
would think a deposit would make splendid material 
to ballast his road. A geologist would immediately 
ask, " Where is the river which rounded this pebble ? 
for every rounded pebble is the result of pluvial 
action. Where is the quartz vein from which this 
has beer^torn ?" A bed of boulders on the top of a 
hill marks the bed of an ancient river, though the 
present stream runs some hundred feet below. lie 
will tell you that in by-gone ages the river was up 
there; that the valleys had been made by erosion. 
So every rock, every pebble, has its history. The 
placers which were worked in an early day. — Tunnel 
Hill, Butte Basin, Prospect Hill, American Hill at 
Oleta, as well as Loafer Hill — all speak of a system of 
rivers, and of course a system of quartz veins from 
which the gold was filched. The vast masses of 
sand, gravel, and clay, w T ith which the San Joaquin 
valley is filled, as well as the eroded valleys, ancient 
rivers, and lava-capped hills, all testify of the forces 
that have helped to make our present abode. 

A history of the denudation may be read in the 
layers of potter's clay, gravel, sand, and lava, that 



GEOLOGY OF AMADOR COUNTY. 



127 



form the foot-hills and the bed of the San Joaquin 
valley. The Bucna Yista mountain is, perhaps, from 
its exposure on several sides, a convenient book of 
reference. Standing on the top of this, one may see 
many parts of the original plain, of which this 
mountain formed a part, that once rested on the 
valleys of lone, Buena Yista, and Buckeye, from 
three hundred to six hundred feet thick, sloping to 
the edge of the former sea-shore, which was forced 
farther away as the masses of matter carried down 
by the rivers filled the valley or basin, precisely as 
the debris or slickens is now filling up the low places. 
The top of this mountain is about six hundred feet 
above the vallej^, and seems to have formed a part of 
the same plain which extended east past Jackson, 
Sutter, and Amador, though at these last-named 
places the plain was some hundreds of feet higher 
than at Buena Yista. Marks of this plain can be 
seen around the base of Butte mountain, which 
stood, like Thomas H. Benton, " solitary and alone," 
while the shallow rivers fumed and fretted at its 
feet, depositing beds of auriferous gravel to be 
scrambled for in after ages. Let us see what the 

BUENA VISTA MOUNTAIN 

Is composed of. Commencing at the top, 
we find indurated volcanic ash, or what 
may be termed trachyte, with some indi- 
cations of columnar cleavage 80 feet. 

Coarse fragments of lava, not hardened, 
forming a loose, porous soil. This is the 
sloping portion, below the bold part of 
the hill 100 feet. 

Bed of volcanic and quartz gravel, contain- 
ing some gold 50 feet. 

(This, on the surrounding hills, is the bed 
upon which is generally superimposed 
the breccia, or unwashed lava, not having 
been rounded by the action of water.) 

Sandstone, resembling granite, suitable for 

building purposes 40 feet. 

(In some of the surrounding hills this 
becomes of a fine red color, owing to the 
presence of sesquioxide of iron. The bal- 
ustrade of the steps of the Court Ilouse in 
Jackson are made of this stone.) 

Clays of different kinds, containing, in 
places, iron ore, sometimes white, some- 
times composed of sand, white as snow, 
supposed to be mostly from volcanic 
material, as in corresponding strata; far- 
ther west, pieces of pumice-stone of fine 
quality abound . 200 feet. 

Carboniferous clays and sandstones, con- 
taining impressions of vegetation, mostly 
of the kinds now growing, such as alder, 
ash, pine, cedar, spruce, with some of 
leaves resembling the palm. The feathers 
of birds are also converted into coal, and 
preserved in the seams of clay 100 feet. 



(These clays are the matrices of the coal 
beds, which vary in thickness from a mere 
stain to several feet.) 
Ferruginous clay, containing spheroidal 
concretions, from a foot to six feet in 
diameter, with impressions of leaves and 
plants. The discovery of an old well, 
with cut stone walls, proved to be the 
lower half of a concretion, the shell of 
which bore much resemblance to a stone 

wall 40 feet. 

Coarse clay and beds of sand, with some 
vegetable remains half converted to coal. 
These veins furnish water for the artesian 
wells; when traced to the mountains 

they become auriferous gravel-beds (*) 150 feet. 

These strata all have a descent to the west of 
about one hundred feet to the mile, and correspond 
nearly with the ascending beds of the ancient east 
and west rivers; thus, continuing the line east at 
Jackson, the elevation of the plain would be about 
twelve hundred feet; at Yolcano twenty-five hun- 
dred. This plain terminates in the present Sacra- 
mento or San Joaquin plain, about five or six 
miles west. The lava flow may be seen in several 
places dipping into the ground, or into the level that 
was once a sea-shore line, as at "W hippies, near the 
Poland Ilouse on the Mokelumne river; on the 
mountain west of J. P. Martin's lower ranch, where 
it forms the crest of the mountain; on the hills 
south of the Newton mine, and, perhaps, in a hun- 
dred other places in the county. 

I have deemed it necessary to particularly notice 
the formation of the foot-hills, because here we have a 
record of the denudation that has gone on in the 
mountains, the separate layers each telling its story. 
Let us examine the lowest formation, which here 
rests on the hardest and most highly metamorphosed 
slate we meet with in the whole series of the foot- 
hills, the slaty structure being very hard to trace. 
These reefs of rocks form the dividing lines, and 
frequently, the boundaries of the valleys; as, for 
instance, the hill near the junction of Dry creek 
with Jackson creek, and the same class of rocks 
north and south of Jackson valley. In looking at 
these one can easily believe they have been a mass 
of boulders, partially melted and fused together. 
You can easily pick out rocks of different kinds, 
which seemed to have formed the original mass, yet 
the geologists tell us that they were never melted; 
that this apparent fusion occurred when the rocks 
were in a plastic state, and that the boulder appear- 
ance is due to the tendency to spheroidal concretion, 
manifested by all plastic substances. The long reefs 
of rocks, smoothed as if with, a plane, show the 
wash of a surf for an indefinite period of time, and 
the subsequent burying by matter, held in suspension, 
indicates a calm, sheltered bay, where the tides and 
currents were gentle. 

*These figures are in round numbers. The depth or thickness 
of the strata constantly varies. 



128 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



If we examine the gravel at the base of the slate 
hills, wo shall find no volcanic matter; quartz, 
slate, and granite boulders Only. This would indi- 
cate a considerable period of erosion, of denudation 
of the bills before any eruption of lava. The next 
deposit is mostly destitute of volcanic matter, but 
contains much iron, indicating a breaking down of 
ledges or rocks containing iron and sulphur, as sec- 
ondary sulphurets arc frequent; in fact, much of the 
gravel of this age is cemented by sulphurets; for 
instance, in the lower beds of gravel in Mat Mur- 
ray's claim, at Lancha Plana. 

THE CARBONIFEROUS CLAYS. 

These contain a great deal of volcanic matter 
which seems to have been carried into the rivers as 
ashes, pumice-stone and seorirc. In many places 
the pumice-stone, as in the hills west of lone, is 
found in considerable quantities. The streams depos- 
iting this were apparently running in broad, shallow 
channels, with but small depression, the layers 
being regular, and sometimes so thin that hundreds 
of different deposits may be found in the thickness 
of a foot. The length of this period seems to have 
been immense. We can conceive something of thenum- 
berof'years necessary to fill up a valley, even like that 
of the Sacramento or San Joaquin with running rivers, 
bankfull of mud, gravel, and sand; but to calculate 
the time a gentle cmu'ent, perhaps only discolored 
with clay, would require to fill an open sea, or bay, 
a hundred feet or more deep, makes quite a draft on 
our stock of time. In this deposit we find the coal- 
beds which seem to be nothing more than masses of 
drift-wood, of the kinds now growing on the sur- 
rounding hills, such as cedar, pine, oak, manzanita 
and alder, the latter being particularly abundant, 
inclosed in the tight clays, and imperfectly carbon- 
ized. This part of the subject will be treated moi*e 
fully under the head of coal. 

If a heavy draft on time was necessary for the 
deposite of the carbonaceous strata, a much heavier 
one is necessary for the overlying clays, which are, 
in places, two hundred feet thick. In some places 
they are alternate with beds of infusorial earth, 
which could have been deposited only in clear water 
holding silex, not in suspension, but in solution, as a 
hundredth, or perhaps a thousandth part of an inch 
of mud would have destroyed the insects which 
build these little shells. 

These clays have an economic value, as fine pottery 
is being made from them, and it is quite probable 
that porcelain will, at no distant day, be manu- 
factured, using the clays and quartz of the higher 
ranges. 

GRANITIC SANDSTONE. 

There is little volcanic matter in this. The 
deposit shows a breaking down of granitic rocks, 
and a more vigorous wash of the streams, indicating 
an increased altitude of the mountains, and conse- 
quently a greater carrying power to the water. 



BOULDER FORMATION. 

For the first time in our record, we find a volcanic 
boulder in the drift. The volcanoes now disgorge 
lava, solid rock, instead of ashes and scoria?, and aro 
evidently in full operation, the streams being all at 
work. In many places the lava deposits quite hide 
the rock-beds heretofore traversed by the streams, 
as the drift is composed wholly of volcanic boulders 
which cover thousands of acres, in fact, half the hills 
of the county seem capped with them. They arc 
hard, almost indestructible, and, wherever a mass 
has been deposited, effectually protect the ground 
from erosion. 

Breccia, or lava, is found still higher than the 
bouldei*s, and sometimes has completely filled the 
channels, turning the rivers into entirely new 
courses. These masses of lava flowing red hot to 
the sea, must have presented a magnificent sight to 
man, if he existed. Boulders of considerable size 
are found in the lava, but were probably formed by 
spheroidal concretion, or by being rolled or crowded 
along while in a partially melted state. This formed 
the climax of volcanic action. But for the presence 
of volcanic ash on the breccia, or lava, we might 
conclude that the volcanoes ceased their working 
after the terrific outpour of lava, but it would seem 
that they quieted down gradually, perhaps were in 
their old age for centuries. Extensive as the flow 
was, Amador county was only on the outer edge of 
the volcanic action; farther north the whole country, 
for thousands of square miles, was covered so deeply 
that no rivers have cut their way through it. If it 
buried gold mines, they are still there. This outflow 
of lava and boulders pushed the shore-line of the 
bay some seven or eight miles farther out, burying 
the drift-wood hundreds of feet deep. If we could 
have seen Amador county at this time, it would have 
presented the appearance of a vast plain with a few 
peaks, like the Butte mountain, and a few of the 
higher points west of the quartz belt, standing 
above the mass of lava and boulders. It could have 
had no vegetation, any more than the Modoc lava- 
bed. What a few acres are now, barren and sterile, 
the whole county was then. It could have sustained 
no vegetation. Some of the places are left, especially 
in the upper parts of the county. 

It must not bo inferred that a uniform mass of 
lava covered the county. The same water-shed as 
now sent its streams to the sea, meandering upon the 
plain, piling up here gravel and there sand, chang- 
ing their courses frequently. Nearly all the strata, 
described in this chapter as belonging to the Buena 
Vista mountain, thin out as we strike the slates, and 
many are entirely lost; a few of the more extensive, 
like the lava boulder and clay formations, have their 
representatives in the more elevated parts of the 
county. 

GLACIAL EPOCn. 

A new actor comes upon the scene. From being' 
covered with streams of melted lava, flowing in a 




JOHN A.BROWN. 



TOMPSON £ wesr^ OA hlano. 



^r. 



GEOLOGY OF AMADOR COUNTY. 



129 



fiery stream to tire sea, the ice king throws his 
mantle over it, and claims it for his own. As in all 
the rest of North America, or at least the northern 
part of it, the falling snows accumulated thousands 
of 3'ears, until, compacted into ice, the}' were miles 
in depth. There is not room here to prove the 
glacial theory. One must read it for themselves, 
or look for its track in our mountain canons, or on 
our long sloping plains. They must see, as the 
author has seen, the piles of rock, miles in extent, 
heaped up by them, and the vast surfaces worn 
away, smoothed down as with a gigantic plane, 
which it is; then the track of a glacier will be 
recognized, as easily as the track of a land-slide. 
These glaciers reached to the sea-line, though the 
heaviest work was done towards the summits. These 
great masses of ice move, slowly it is true, twenty 
or thirty feet in a year, forcing along everything in 
their way that is movable. Granite boulders, twenty 
feet in diameter, are held in the ice as in a vice, 
and cut their way through lava, through slate, and 
through granite, leaving the powdered debris to be 
carried off in the melting stream, in the shape of 
clay. How long these streams continued is uncer- 
tain; long enough to erode deep canons in the 
hardest rocks. Silver lake is a glacial erosion, for 

years it moved down the canon below Silver 

lake, down the American river, cutting its way with 
irresistible force; but the glacial epoch had its time, 
and the ice king slowly surrendered his dominions, 
retreating up the mountain sides, stubbornly con- 
testing each foot of ground. At Silver lake, he 
made a last stand before a complete surrender. The 
ice could get no farther 'than the outlet of the lake, 
and melted at that point. Here were accumulated 
the broken and worn-out tools, used in the excava- 
tion, piled up in a great mass across the lower end 
of the lake. These dams, or piles of rocks, so well 
known to geologists, are called moraines, and always 
mark the retreat of a glacier. The outlet of the 
lake has not yet worn much below the channel, left 
at the melting of the great mass. Those who are 
curious enough to examine them, may find several 
small glaciers, a few acres in extent, around the 
lake. We may well believe that a mass of ice a 
couple of miles in depth, forced along by several 
miles more upon the mountain sides, could scoop out 
a basin like Silver lake, or even like Tahoe lake, 
which is also a glacier erosion. The basin of Volcano 
is also a glacial erosion, the glacier melting and 
leaving a lake nearly a hundred feet deep, which 
shrunk away as the waters cut the canon deeper. 
The limestone, sometimes smoothed as if hammered 
and polished, and then, again, honey-combed by the 
streams flowing from the melting mass of ice, have 
kept a faithful record of the matter. Butte basin 
is also another glacial erosion, with this difference, 
liowever, it w r as filled up within a short time after 
the melting of the ice. The long sloping valleys 
around Jackson, Sutter, Amador, and Plymouth, 
17 



have the same origin. As a general thing, a valley 
with the bed-rock near the surface, worn smoothly 
away, without regard to the character of the rock, 
is the result of glacier erosion, as is also a long, 
straight, or nearly straight, channel of a creek. A 
crooked channel, dodging the hard places, is a water 
erosion. The present channels of the streams are 
below the channels eroded by the glaciers, from one 
hundred to four hundred feet, so that the track of 
the glaciers must be looked for on higher ground. 

If we could take a section a few miles in depth, 
out of the mountains between lone and Volcano, the 
appearance would be something like the following 
rough drawing: — 

A 




We will suppose "A" to be in the vicinity of lone; 
" B " to represent the serpentine range which passes 
the Mountain Spring House; "C" to be the ridge 
west of Jackson, Sutter Creek, Amador, and Ply- 
mouth, and " D " to be the ridge west of Volcano and 
the principal marble range, these points being the axes 
of elevation, no attempt being made to preserve the 
relative distances. Further examination might show 
another axis of elevation between the Mother Lode, 
as it is called, and the limestone range, but the pres- 
ent diagram is accurate enough to illustrate the 
theory of denudation, the mineral veins and the 
ancient valleys. It will be seen from this that a 
great portion of the elevation is gone. It may have 
been, probably was, miles in depth, for the lime- 
stones that now form such prominent objects in 
many parts of the county are destitute of fossils, 
with a high crystalline formation, which changes 
could have been accomplished only under the pres- 
sure of a superincumbent mass of perhaps, miles in 
depth. The same pressure was requisite to obliterate 
the fossils of the metamorphic rocks constituting the 
summits of the hills at the axes of the elevations. If 
any one should object to this as involving too great a 
removal of earth, a question as to the source of the 
material forming the San Joaquin and Sacramento 
valleys might prepare his mind to assent to the 
denudation. 

FORMER COURSE OP THE RIVERS. 

The present rivers intersect these ridges or for- 
mer mountain ranges, yet there are many facte 
showing a system of rivers running parallel with 
these lines of elevation. Looking at these mountains 
in a clear day, from an elevated point on the Saci*a- 
mento plains, one may easily trace the course of 
these rivers by their banks which have been only 
partially obliterated. From Bear Mountain in Cala- 
veras to the ridges west of the lower end of Indian 
creek, in the northern part of the county, and the 



L30 



BISTORT? OF AMADOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



ridges west of the quartz mines of Nashville and 
Aunim City, the marks of an ancient valley arc 
unmistakable, The other valleys, though not so 
prominent, may be easily (raced. The gravel beds 
also furnish another ineontestible proof of the exist- 
ence of these valleys. The glacial erosion did not 
wholly obliterate the beds of the ancient rivers. 
Beginning with Tunnel bill, where we find a large 
deposit, wo pass northward, passing Jackson, which 
we find to be in the track of a glacier, to the hills 
east of the Gate, when we again come upon the river 
bed. North of the Gate it passes under the lava 
ridge, shows itself on the east side of the town of 
Sutter Creek in several places, though it is somewhat 
obscured where the cast and west streams intersect it. 
An examination of the gi'avel will generally determine 
the age of the stream. As the stream we are follow- 
ing existed previous to the volcanic era. we shall find 
few or no boulders of that formation. East of Ama- 
dor and Plymouth the traces are nearly obliterated. 
Snake Flat, east of the Cover mine, probably is a 
relic of the river. East of Volcano we also find the 
same evidence of former streams. Prospect hill, 
now overgrown with pines, Humbug hill, and the 
hills in the vicinity of Spanish gulch, the hills farther 
up the forks of Sutter Creek, Mason's claim, Hall's 
claim, the Italian claim, — all belong to that age of 
deposit. The streams mustnot be confounded with the 
subsequent rivers which intersected all that we are 
speaking of. The rivers of the first instance were 
shallow, meandering along valleys of considerable 
width, following no certain direction and frequently 
changing their channels. The quartz boulders 
abounding in these channels do not indicate a power- 
ful stream but rather a steady wear; furthermore, 
the boulders, especially the heavy ones, were not 
moved far from the veins, which usually may be 
found within a short distance. It is highly probable 
that the actual elevation of these rivers was much less 
than at present. Perhaps at this time a description 
of the great lead of California may be introduced as 
showing the character of the rivers existing previous 
to the volcanic era. This description is taken from 
the Overland Monthly, and is worthy the attention of 
all desirous of a knowledge of the former systems of 
rivers. We propose to show in a future chapter the 
possible continuation of the river into this county, 
all traces of it having been, according to our best 
authorities, lost. 

THE DEAD RIVERS OE CALIFORNIA. 

" What is a dead river ?" 

" The simplest reply to this natural question would 
be, that a dead river is one which formerly existed, 
but exists no longer. In volcanic regions it some- 
times happens that the liquid lava,' seeking the 
lowest ground, fills up the beds of rivers which would 
die, and are replaced by water courses running in 
other channels, and in different directions. These 
dead streams are so few and of little importance 
elsewhere, that as yet, no class-name has been given 
them; but in California they are among the chief 



sources of its mineral wealth, and among the most 
remarkable features of its geological formation. 
They lake us back to a remote era, before the time 
of Rome, or Creece, or Egypt, far hack beyond the 
origin of history or tradition, before our coast had 
taken its present shape; before the Sierra Nevada 
had risen to its present elevation; before Shasta, 
and Lassen, and Castle Peaks, had poured out their 
lava -floods; before the Sacramento river had its 
birth, and while, if not before, the mastodon, the 
elephant, the rhinoceros, the horse, the mammoth 
bull, the tapir, and the bison, lived in the land. 
They are indeed among the most remarkable dis- 
coveries of the age, and among the greatest wonders 
of geology. They deserve some common name, and 
we have to choose between 'extinct' and ' dead.' 
We speak of ' extinct volcanoes,' and of ' dead 
languages,' and as the latter is Saxon and short, we 
preterit. They had been called ' old channels,' but 
this name does not convey the proper idea, since a 
channel is not necessarily a river, and an old channel 
is not necessarily a dead one. A dead river is a 
channel formerly occupied by a running stream, but 
now filled up with earthy or rocky matter, and is 
not to be confounded with a channel that is open 
and remains dry during the greater part of the year 
because of a lack of water, or that has been aban- 
doned by the stream for a deeper channel elsewhere.. 
A dry river bed is not a dead river. 

" The dead rivers of California, so far as known, are 
on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada, from 
five hundred to seven thousand feet above the sea. 
They are auriferous, and therefore they have been 
sought for and examined. They have yielded prob- 
ably $300,000,000 in all; they now produce perhaps 
$8,000,000 annually. They are not less interesting, 
therefore/to the miner than to the geologist; not less 
important to the statesman than to the antiquarian. 

"The largest dead river is known as 'the Big; 
Blue Lead,' and has been traced from Little Grizzly, 
about latitude thirty-nine degrees and forty-five 
minutes, in Placer county, a distance of sixty-five 
miles. The course is south-south-east, the position 
about thirty miles west of, and parallel with, the 
main divide of the Sierra Nevada. The elevation is 
five thousand feet above the sea at Little Grizzly, 
and two thousand eight hundred at Forest Hill, 
showing an average fall of thirty- three feet per mile. 
The live rivers of the Sierra Nevada run at right 
angles to the course' of the range, and have cut 
canons from fifteen hundred to three thousand feet 
deep, and they are separated by ridges which are 
from three to six miles apart, and are as high as the 
canons are deep. The Blue Lead runs across these 
ridges from two hundred to one thousand feet below 
their summits. The traveler does not see any signs 
of a dead river in these ridges, which are as high 
and have the same general appearance at the Blue 
Lead as at other places. I shall presentty tell how 
the miner discovers the lead, but before coming to 
that, I want to give you a clear idea how the dead 
river crosses the ridges. Take a piece of common 
ruled cap paper; put your pen on a line, draw it up 
at an angle of forty -five degrees to the second line 
above, then down the first line at the same angle, 
and so on until the line made by your pen looks like 
eight rectangular saAV-teeth, which are about an 
inch high. Consider those teeth as the ridges of the 
Sierra Nevada on the line of the Blue Lead in Sierra 
county, and the intervals between them as the 
canons. Write over the first caflon to the left, 
'Canon creek;' over the next, ' Goodyear's creek; 



GEOLOGY OF AMADOR COUNTY. 



131 



and over the others consecutively, ' North Fork of 
the Yuba river,' 'Rock creek,' ' Oregon ravine,' ' West 
ravine,' and ' Middle Yuba.' Now draw a horizontal 
line across all the ridges, a quarter of an inch from 
their tops. That line is the Blue Lead. The diagram 
made as directed, represents a perpendicular section 
of the ridges and canons of the Sierra Nevada, on 
the line of the Big Blue Lead in Sierra county as 
seen from the west. 

" I have said that the traveler would see no sign of 
a dead river in riding over the country. The ridges 
are as high on its line as elsewhere; the canon sides 
present the same appearance. Years elapsed before 
the miners discovered the existence of the ancient 
channel. But it required only a few months for the 
discovery that the live rivers were very rich in gold 
up to a certain point; that the abundance and size 
of the particles increased as they ascended up to that 
point; and that beyond or east of that point the 
streams were poor. Those points on the different 
streams were nearly on a line. Just there the ravines 
on the sides of the canons were very rich, and they 
were comparatively poor elsewhere. The miners fol- 
lowed up the raviues, washing the dirt in their beds, 
and the dirt where the ravines were not too steep 
was a foot or two deep over the slate rock. At last, 
when the miners got near the top of the ridge, they- 
found that the narrow, shallow rock-bed of the 
ravine suddenly disappeared, and the body of the 
hill was composed of gravel, which had a peculiar 
blue color, and part of it, a horizontal stratum about 
half a mile wide from east to west, and five feet 
thick, was very rich in gold. They looked after the 
metal and paid little attention to anything else. As 
the stratum ran across the ridges from north to south, 
the miners followed it in with adits, or tunnels, and 
in more than one place the tunnels met; and a few 
years ago it was customary for footmen passing 
between Monticello and Excelsior to go underground 
a distance of a mile rather than to climb over the 
hill six hundred feet high, by a path nearly two 
miles long. In the same manner Forest City and 
Alleghany were connected by a continuous tunnel; 
but the timbers have rotted, the roof has fallen in, 
and the passage is now closed. 

" The auriferous deposit is gravel, mixed with boul- 
ders, clay, and sand, varying from a hundred to three 
hundred feet in depth; in strata, distinguished from 
one another by differences in color, in the size of the 
boulders and gravel, and in the number and size of 
the particles of gold. The predominant color is 
bluish-gray, dark at the bottom and lighter above, 
with a reddish tinge in those places that have long 
been exposed to the air, showing the presence of iron. 
The material of the boulders, gravel and sand, is 
almost exclusively quartz. In the whole length of 
the river, as traced for a distance of sixty-five "miles, 
assuming that the deposits of gravel average half a 
mile wide and two hundred feet deep, there were, 
counting in the portions Avhich have been washed 
away by the live rivers, six billion six hundred and 
sixty million cubic yards of quartz and clay, and the 
quartz alone must have measured five billion cubic 
yards. In the live rivers, quartz forms only a small 
portion of the gravel. 

" Whence came all the quartz of the Big Blue ? 
How did it happen that no granite, slate, porphyry, 
basalt or sandstone was buried in its bed? If all the 
quartz veins now known in California were cleaned 
out to a depth of one hundred feet, they would not 
supply so much as is found in sixty-five miles of a 
river that must have run for many hundreds of miles. 



The gravel is all water- worn, and rounded by long 
attrition. It came from far north. A piece of rough 
quartz, while being carried five hundred miles in the 
fiercest of our. mountain streams, would not be worn 
so smooth as is every pebble in the Blue Lead. And 
the immense size of the boulders implies a mighty 
current. Those in the lowest stratum average, in 
some places, a ton, and many are found of twenty tons. 
These are worn as smooth as the pebbles. They 
are not found scattered here and there as though 
they had tumbled down the banks of the river near 
the spot where they are found; but they are evenly 
distributed in a stratum of equal thickness across the 
whole bed, and for miles in length. Above that may 
be a stratum of larger ones. The great river 
handled these masses of rock with as much apparent 
ease, and spread them out as evenly, as if they had 
been no larger than pigeons' eggs. 

" The particles of gold are larger in size, and con- 
tain more silver at the bottom than at the top. The 
smaller pieces are in the upper strata and as they 
have a larger surface proportionately, the silver is 
eaten out by the sulphurous acid which is developed 
in the gravel by the oxidation of pyrites. If a 
double eagle and twenty one-dollar pieces are thrown 
into a solution of vitriol and left there for several 
weeks, the small pieces will, at the end of that time, 
contain a larger proportion of gold than the large 
one; and for a similar reason the surface placer gold 
is finer chemically than that obtained from the 
deeper strata. As a general rule, the deep gold is 
nine hundred fine, or is worth eighteen dollars and 
sixty cents per ounce, and the surface gold is nine 
hundred and twenty fine, and is worth nineteen dol- 
lars in the Big Blue Lead. The gold and gravel are 
deposited as in the live rivers, in the banks, bars, 
eddies, ripples and rapids. 

"The richest places have contained as much as fifty 
dollars to the cubic yard of the lower stratum, or if 
the large boulders were left out of the estimate, to 
two or three cubic feet. The space between the 
boulders is filled with sand, clay, and gravel, which 
contains the gold. In the upper strata there are from 
fifty cents to two dollars to the cubic yard. The bed 
is of slate rock, and the banks are from fifty to three 
hundred feet high; but there are few places where 
they have been examined, for nowhere has all the 
gravel been washed away across the channel. 

"But how was it possible that the bed of a large 
river could be filled three hundred feet deep with 
gravel? When the miners in 1850 to 1852, flumed 
the live rivers of California, and took the gold from 
their beds, they found a deposit of gravel that did 
not average more than five feet deep on the bed 
rock, in streams that ran in canons one thousand 
feet deep; and it is strange that the Big Blue should 
have filled its bed with gravel. Yet this filling is 
not without an analogue of our day. Under the 
influence of hydraulic washing, Bear river and Yuba 
river have, within the last fifteen years, begun to 
fill up with gravel, and their beds have, for miles, 
risen seventy feet or more above the levels of 1853. 
This gravel is auriferous, and it is deposited in strata, 
and the arrangements and,general appearance resem- 
ble those of the Big Blue Lead. The filling up began 
down in the valley, and as it ascended the current 
became less rapid, and lost the power to carry away 
the gravel. In Bear river, below Dutch Flat, the 
bed rises two feet per month during the chief wash- 
ing season, from Februaiy to September, and in the 
remaining months it falls on account of the stoppage 
of washing and of the Winter floods, which carry 



!:;•_' 



HISTORY OF AMADOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA 



off perhaps half of the accumulation of the Summer. 

"Some persons claim thai various camps on parts 
ol dead rivers in Plumas county, are on the Big 
Blue Lead, and others think thai portions of a dead 
river, near Placerville, belong to the same stream. 
I do not accepl these theories, bul if they arc true, 
the Big Blue river has been traced about one hun- 
dred and ten miles. In the northern part of Plumas 
county, the ri\er i- buried under deep heds of lava 
and basalt, and south of Placerville it is probably 
helow the level ol' the live streams, and thus cannot 
be found by any system of mining or mode of pros- 
pecting now in use. Even in places where it is 
above the level of the live streams, it may be cov- 
ered on the sides of the canons by slides of rock or 
barren dirt or gravel, and the miner might spend 
thousands of dollars in a vain search for treasures 
not ten feet from his drift, as many have done, and 
some accident, luck, or perseverance, afterwards 
proved the proximity of the rich deposit. In sev- 
eral cases the lead was found by calculation. The 
miner took his position on a hill-side, on a level 
with other camps, and in a few days he found a 
fortune; and others have spent years working on a 
similar plan without success. The river must have 
taken bends on the north side of Eoek creek and 
Oregon ravine, and twelve years of searching have 
not revealed the position of the bends. 

" But why did the Big Blue river die, and leave 
nothing but its gravel and its gold to tell the story of 
its greatness ? The main cause must have been the 
subsequent rise of the Sierra Nevada. Suppose that 
a range of mountains, seven thousand feet high were 
upheaved thirty miles east of the Mississippi; that the 
bed of the stream were on the mountain side, three 
thousand feet above the sea, and that thirty miles west 
the country retained its present level; the result 
would be that the present Mississippi would soon be 
a dead river; it would be cut across by streams run- 
ning down the mountain side, and pouring into a 
new Mississippi, thirty miles or more west of the 
present one. We know that the Sierra Nevada has 
been upheaved; that a large stream ran on what is 
now the mountain side; and that it has been suc- 
ceeded by a new river farther west; and we must 
infer that the death of the old and the birth of the 
newriver*was caused by the upheaval. 

" Many of the hills crossed by the Big Blue are 
capped with lava or basalt, which covered much of 
the country from near the summit of the range to 
about three thousand feet above the sea. It seems 
then that the river filled its bed with gravel; the 
mountains began to rise, and volcanoes broke out 
along the divide; the lava ran down and covered the 
land to the line of the dead river and beyond it; 
the mountains rose still higher, and the waters run- 
ning down their sides cut through the lava and 
made deep canons, and washed away two-thirds or 
three-fourths of the dead river, and scattered its 
gold among the living waters. 

"The descent of thirty -three feet per mile 
observed between Little Grizzly and Forest Hill 
would make a terrific current in a stream half a mile 
wide. The Sacramento is a lively river, yet its grade 
is only five feet in a mile. But no ordinary current 
could have carried the large quartz boulders of the 
Big Blue Lead from distant regions and distributed 
them evenly over the river bed. It is possible, how- 
ever, that in the lifting up of the mountains the rela- 
tive elevations have been altered, and that the 
present grade differs from that of the Big Blue while 
it was alive. 



■ A question suggests ii-'-H whether the great dead 
river was the predecessor of any living stream; but 

to this no satisfactory answer can now be given; 
and it is doubtful whether time and research will 
ever furnish one. The Big Blue was parallel to the 
Sacramento and has to a certain extent been suc- 
ceeded by it; but it drained a much larger district 
than the Sacramento docs, or the rain-fall of the 
country was much greater in the era of its existence. 
The Sacramento does not carry one-fourth of the water 
which ran in the Big Blue — probably not one-tenth. 
If we could ascertain that the quantity of rain had 
not altered, then we should be justified in presuming 
that the Columbia rivcr,wbich would just about fill the 
bed of the Big Blue, instead of turning westward at 
Walla Walla, originally continued southward, until 
the lifting up of Shasta and Lassen, and the adjacent 
ridges, stopped its course, and compelled it to break 
through the Cascade range at the Dalles. With our 
present limited knowledge, we are not justified in 
calling the Big Blue river either the dead Sacra- 
mento or the dead Columbia. 

"Some persons have argued that the Big Blue Lead 
never was a river, but only a lacustrine or alluvial 
deposit. This theory, however, is untenable. The 
Big Blue Lead has all the marks which a dead river 
should have. It has a long course; a width nearly 
uniform, a course nearly straight, some bends with 
eddies on the inner side, a peculiar quartz unlike any 
found in the neighboring ridges, or in the streams 
to the eastward, an abundance of quartz, which no 
place now known to us could have supplied, and 
which came, probably, from a distant northern region 
now covered with lava,* water-worn gravel, which 
must have been carried far; flat stones pointing 
down stream, as a current would place them; strata 
of coarse and fine gravel, which must have been 
deposited in a stream; a uniform, descending grade; 
the coarse particles of gold, which could not have 
been distributed so evenly over a wide channel except 
in a strong current; an immense quantity of gold, 
which required ages to scatter through a deposit 
three hundred feet deep; drift-wood unmistakably 
water- w T orn; trunks of trees with the butts up 
stream; tributary brooks, and a number of other 
evidences which would require more space for their 
description and explanation than I could spare. To 
say that the Big Blue is not a dead river, is equiva- 
lent to saying that the bones of the mastodon never 
belonged to a living animal, but were formed under 
geological influences exclusively. 

" If this were the only dead river in the State, the 
proof would be less conclusive, but there are a dozen 
others. One which runs south-westwardly, and may 
be called the dead Brandy river, appears at La Port, 
Brandy City, Camptonville and North San Juan, and 
is marked by the same general characteristics, save 
that the gravel is finer, the pebbles in the upper strata 
being generally not larger than a pigeon's egg. 

" In Tuolumne and Calaveras counties we have the 
dead Stanislaus, or Tuolumne table mountain, which 
runs from near Silver mountain, in Alpine, to 
Knight's Ferry, and there disappears. It is covered 
by a bed of basalt, which flowed as lava from a vol- 
cano, and filled up the ancient bed; and this basalt 
has resisted the elements, and now stands as a 
mountain forty miles long, a quarter of a mile wide, 
and eight hundred feet high, the softer adjacent 
slate rock having been wasted and washed away. 
Under this mountain lies a dead river, rich in gold. 
A similar table mountain of basalt, covering an aurif- 
erous dead river, which I call the dead Cherokee, 




* 



"V 



JOSEPH WOOLFORD. 



TOMPSat H w£ST, OAKLAND. 






Jl 



GEOLOGY OF AMADOR COUNTY. 



133 



after its chief mining camp, extends seventy miles, 
from Lassen's Peak to Oroville. At Bangor, in 
Butte county, is a small dead river, seventy feet below 
the general surface of the ground, and covered with 
ordinary soil and gravel. There are also dead riv- 
ers at Smartsville, Mokelumne Hill and San Andreas. 
The Big Blue and dead Brandy are distinguished by 
the depth of their gravel, and by the absence of 
pebbles of eruptive origin in it. The others have 
either short courses or shallow deposits of gravel; 
and the quartz' forms a much smaller percentage of 
the gravel. In the dead rivers at Cherokee, Ban- 
gor, and Smartsville, a large proportion of the boul- 
ders and pebbles is of lava and basalt, as if the 
stream had been formed after the commencement 
of the volcanic era. But different as is the material 
of the gravel, the fluvial origin of the deposits is sim- 
ilar and indubitable in all of them, when they are 
studied together." 

It may be presumptive to offer any suggestion as 
to the source of the immense stream which formed 
or deposited this lead. The suggestion that it might 
have been the Columbia river before it had broken 
its way through the Dalles, is perhaps worth con- 
sidering. Another suggestion may be permitted. 
Those who have crossed the Utah basin, will have 
noticed the water lines far up on the sides of the 
mountains, showing that it was formerly an inland 
sea, or lake, larger than any now on the continent, 
which might have had its outlet through some of 
the passes in the Sierra, ere its waters were lapped 
up by the dessicating winds. This suggestion is 
made for the benefit of the future geologist. The 
question may be decided when the great lava bed, 
which buried up the supposed channel of the river, 
shall have been explored, and its secrets laid bare. 
For the present we may lay this question aside, as 
one too momentous for our present limited infor- 
mation. How long these rivers pursued their course, 
where they emptied, and into what waters, are also 
matters for future investigation. The deposits of 
clay which marked this era, indicated an almost 
interminable period. We may be inclined to ask, 
Of what use was the earth at this time? 



RIVERS FLOWING TO THE WEST. 

But there came an end to this sleepy, easy flow 
of events. The volcanoes, which had so long sent 
forth only mud and ashes, now took on an indus- 
trious fit, and commenced pouring out lava without 
stint, choking up the former channels, and, in some 
instances, burying them under three or four hun- 
dred feet of lava. It is probable that previous to 
this, many, or perhaps all, of these rivers had worn 
a way through the low mountains which hemmed 
them in, and found their way to the sea; but the 
Uava forced them to form channels in a new direc- 
tion. The low mountain barriers were overflowed. 
The rivers, running with an increased velocity, now 
swept along great boulders of lava, granite, slate, or 
whatever came in their way. On a ridge between 
Amador and Sutter, some miles below the towns, 
may be seen boulders ten feet in diameter, which 
appear to have been left at the foot of a long descend- 
ing portion of the river. Many times the new rivers 
would choke up, compelling the water, again and 
again, to seek new channels. These channels, in 
many places, occupy the ridges between the present 
river beds, sometimes at a height of six hundred 
feet. 

STRATIFIED ROCKS. 

The surface having been considered, the stratified 
rocks may next claim attention. These all dip into 
the ground at various angles, sometimes with pitch 
to the east, and sometimes to the west. In these 
stratified rocks are found our valuable metals; and 
any theory of vein formation, to be of value, must 
consider them as a unity. Commencing at the foot 
of the mountains, at the lowest formation visible, 
at lone, Lancha Plana, and the corresponding places 
farther north, we find the strata in the following 
order. I have set the names of the strata to cor- 
respond somewhat with the position of the rocks 
named, and also have elevated, and otherwise noted, 
the metamorphic rocks which formed the summits 
of the ancient valleys. 



134 



BISTORT? OF AMADOU COUNTY, I 'A U KORNIA. 




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GEOLOGY OF AMADOR COUNTY. 



135 



It must not be supposed that any stratum pre- 
serves a uniform character for any distance. Only a 
few of the great veins or ranges like the serpentine 
and the other metamorpbic can be traced in this 
way. Whether from currents in the ocean deposit- 
ing different .materials previous to the upturning of 
the slates, or from subsequent change by translation 
of minerals, or both, the slates change in character 
every mile or two. The black slate will change to 
gray, then to quartzose, or perhaps to syenite. The 
metamorpbic is often thinned out bj^ other rocks. In 
some place the serpentine is two miles wide, in 
others nearly wanting, so that a description of rocks 
at lone might not fully apply to the rocks four or five 
miles further north. 

The metamorphic rocks near lone, Lancha Plana 
and Buena Vista, which have been referred to before, 
may be taken as a starting-point. These do not 
form a continuous reef, but here stand as detached 
masses probably eroded as before mentioned by the 
waves of the sea. Along the junction of this with 
the black slate are some of the largest quartz veins in 
the county. One of them may be seen near Randal's 
ranch near lone, one at Mrs. Nichol's place near 
Buena Vista, and at several other places. That one 
on Randal's ranch has been sunk on some eighty feet 
or more without finding anything of value. Where 
these veins have been subjected to sea wash, as at 
Muletown, and, perhaps, the Arkansas diggings, they 
have made good placer mining. Irish Hill was 
enriched by a mountain stream, as the gravel is com- 
posed of entirely different rocks from that of Mule- 
town. The hill east of lone is probably sea wash, of 
the same age as the Muletown deposit. The sea- 
shore line may be easily traced by the bench-like 
erosions. 

Near the foot-wall of this belt are the Cosumnes, 
the Arroyo Seco, Lancha Plana, and other copper 
mines. On the opposite side of this belt is the New- 
ton Coppermine, as well as several others of promise. 
The reader is requested to note the fact of paying- 
mines being found in the vicinity of these hard slates, 
though these slates themselves scarcely ever contain 
any mineral of value. In the intermediate space are 
many veins containing copper and other minerals in 
small quantities. Near the Boston ranch some 
small veins of quartz are estimated to have five 
dollars to the ton, but they seem to thin out and 
ramify through the ground so as to be unprofitable to 
work, though many ravines have been enriched by 
them. Some veins of steatite (soap-stone) have con- 
siderable gold in them visible to the eye, but no one, 
as yet, has been able to separate it. The gulches 
running from this range have been rich. Near Irish 
Hill is the Kirkendall district which was thought to 
be rich in quartz veins, but the expectations have not 
been realized. 

SERPENTINE RANGE. 

This is a striking formation of metamorphic rock, 
so twisted, contorted and scraggy, that it has been 



considered by many as of volcanic origin. The point 
between Jackson and Stony Creek was thought to be 
an old crater. A close investigation shows it to be slate, 
and the ragged, contorted appearance to be the result 
of the substitution of magnesia for potash in the com- 
position of the rock. Chromate of iron abounds in it, 
a vein of it near the Westfalls' ranch being nearly 
three feet thick. Hundreds of small quartz veins, as 
well as other ore chimneys, may be Been within a 
mile or two while walking along this range. Vogan 
has used many of these veins for road material. 
When sunk on they often turn to clay, and many of 
them are known by being sinks in the ground, or 
sometimes pot-holes of clay. Silver, gold, and 
copper are all found in these chimneys in small quan- 
tities. They were formerly explored for copper. 
These ore deposits may be a continuation of those 
found on the west side of the lower metaliferous 
range. Farther east are many small quartz veins 
with considerable gold, though the veins are too nar- 
row to be worked with profit. Limestone is found in 
many places on this range. Not far from the Filmer 
ranch is a large deposit which burns into good lime; 
though many of the deposits contain too much silica 
or magnesia for that purpose, being perhaps a kind 
of dolomite. It is too dark colored and too hard for 
ornamental purposes. On the Mokelumne river, near 
the head of the Lancha Plana ditch, is a curious 
formation of lime, resembling a frozen waterfall. It 
is somewhat obscured by the dirt which has fallen 
over it, but is well worth an examination. 

A short distance below is an iron spring, a good il- 
lustration of an active ore deposit, a formation of iron 
ore constantly going on, which is every year carried 
away by the high waters of the river. The ore is 
probably the result of the percolation of water 
through decomposing sulphurets not far away. 
Passing east we strike another belt of metamorphic 
slates in places two miles in width. This may be 
considered the great foot-wall of the Mother Lode, 
also the most prominent indication of the largest 
valley, following the ranges of mountains, that 
existed in this county. As the Mother Lode has been, 
and is now, perhaps, the source of more gold than 
any space of the same width and length in the world, 
and, from its having been worked deeper and better 
than any other place, furnishes more material for a 
scientific account of the formation of quartz veins, 
the consideration of it will be deferred to another 
chapter. It may be said of it that it probably fur- 
nished the gold with which the streams once running 
parallel to it were enriched, as well as the streams 
which now cross it, also the larger part of the 
gold that enriched the gravel diggings at the foot- 
hills. It is probable that the stream debouched into 
the Mokelumne or through that depression for a 
long time before the volcanic era, as there are no 
large deposits of gravel along the foot-hills near the 
outlet of the present streams that are of sufficient 
amount to have been produced by its wash. 



13(5 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Kasi df the Mother Lode, which musl be consid- 
ered never less than two hundred, and sometimes 
two thousand, feet wide, there is little quartz that 

lias any value. We find veins of slale and syenite 
alternating with each oilier. Some of the gulches are 
enriched hy the wash of the great streams of gravel 
that resulted in the breaking up of the first system 
of rivers. Nearly half of the ground around Pine 
Grove seems to he a relic of this wash; streams of 
gravel, some rich and some nearly barren, traversing 
the hills in all possible directions. The quartz veins 
near the last metamorphic range spoken of are prob- 
ably connected by a sort of geological, umbilical cord 
with the Mother Lode, though vastly inferior to it in 
wealth. The veins have not regularity of pitch or 
strike, sometimes breaking through the slate across 
the rift and frequently losing themselves in extensive 
ramifications. In places they are very rich, thirty or 
forty dollars per ton not being uncommon. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

GEOLOGY OF AMADOR COUNTY. 

BY GEORGE MADEIRA. 

Extensive Character of the Subject — Mother Lode — Methods 
of "Vein Depo'its — Character of the Veins East of the 
Mother Lode — Minerals in the Tertiary Rocks — Nature of 
the Limestones — Gravel Deposits — Nature of the Supposed 
Photographic Rock — Evidences of Glaciers — Moving Large 
Rocks — Volcanoes — Origin of the Trap Rock — Origin of the 
Smaller Quartz Veins — Butte Mountain — Copper — Iron 
— Gvpsum — Asbestos — Marble — Kaolin — Manganese- Agate 
— Chalcedony — Skeletons of the Megatherium — Other Fos- 
sils — Rhinoceros — Hippopotamus — Horse Destruction of the 
Arcadian Land — Botany. 

[The following chapter on technical geology, by 
a professional mining expert, will please the more 
scientific of the readers of this work. The writer 
is amply competent to write an extended and 
exhaustive treatise on the subject of geology or 
practical mining. — Editor.] 

To the geologist and mining explorer, Amador 
county offers the most interesting field of research 
to be found in the State, containing, as it does 
within its limits, the most extensive quartz deposits 
to be found on the western slope of the Sierras. 
The great Mother Lode passes entirely across the 
county in a northerly and southerly direction. At 
the Keystone mine (Amador) the course of the vein 
is: south forty-two degrees, twenty-six minutes 
east; north forty-two degrees, twenty-six minutes 
west. Inclination of east wall of fissure, fifty 
degrees; the east hanging wall is a metamorphic 
silicious slate; and what is known, along the lode, 
as the west wall rock, or foot- wall, is a blue-black, 
laminated slate. These laminated slates on the 
west may not be the true foot-wall, as we find, one- 
fourth of a mile to the west, a simalar parellel wall 
of metamorphic slate, although it does not contain 
the silica found in the east wall rock. 

Between these widely divided parallel walls of 
metamorphic slates, we find numerous stringers of 



quartz, from the width of a knife-blade to many 
feet. The main Mother Lode, however, is found run- 
ning along the east hanging-wall rock, but in some 
instances it haves (he same and varies to the west. 
In the Keystone, at Amador, the vein leaves the east 
wall, and, for a space of four hundred feet, does not 
return to it. In the same mine we find the entire 
width of the quartz deposit, as far as penetrated 
to the west, nearly one hundred and fifty feet. At 
the Empire mine, Plymouth, the vein is seventy-five 
feet in width. At the Zeile mine, one-half mile south 
of Jackson, the vein is thirty to forty feet at its 
greatest width. 

Stringers and feeders, from the country rock in 
geological times, earned the silicious waters to the 
main fissure, where it deposited its lode of silica 
that went to form the vein. This lode gives indubit- 
able evidence of the manner in which it was formed, 
to wit: b\ r infiltration from the country rock, mostly 
from the east. The east hanging-wall, in many 
places along the line of the fissure, is a ciystalline, 
metamorphic slate, which has been changed by beat 
and pressui-e into a near approach to diorite. 
These slates are silicious rather than talcoso, and 
frequently pass into rock closely resembling diorite 
or trap, and are difficult to distinguish from the 
intrusive or eruptive rocks. They, at times, assume 
aporphyritic structure, and may be taken for eruptive 
rocks. 

As we pass to the west, we find the slates grad- 
ully change from metamorphic, to laminated, then to 
conglomerate slate,* a series of fragmental rocks. 
These conglomerate slates have caused much com- 
ment among explorers, other than geologists, as to 
their origin, and as they are abundant to the west 
of the great Mother Lode, but are not found to the 
east of it, we will give their origin. 

These slates are made up of quartz pebbles, 
fragments of slate, mica, and feldspar. They appear 
as stratified gravel deposits, and gold has been found 
in them. These strata were formed on the bottom 
of a Jurassic sea, and are the cemented fragments 
torn from older rocks. In the upheaval of the 
Sierras, these slates escaped the pressure that was 
brought to bear on those further to the east, and 
hence we find them to-day a series of conglomerate 
slate and sandstone. It is interesting to pass over 
these slates, eastward, and see them pass gradu- 
ally into the metamorphic slates, and trace the out- 
lines of the quartz pebble in the firm silicious slate 
along the great fissure that contains the Mother 
Lode. 

At some period, after the Jurassic era, the upheaval 
of the Sierra fissured the western slope, as it is 
known to have fissured the eastern, Avith numerous 
large and small openings. Along the line of the 
then base of the Sierras, volumes of steam and 
streams of silicious waters poured from the great 
fissure, which now contains the Mother Lode. The 
*May be seen in quantity near Drytown. 




'^■> 






T~e# £ 



[MaM 




GEOLOGY OF AMADOR COUNTY. 



137 



heated waters deposited then* loads of silica, and, 
the ascending vapors their metalic deposit. From 
near Berranda. on the South Pacific Railroad, to 
Trinity on the north, spouting geysers and steam- 
ing solfataras, ladened the air with vapors, and 
marked the site of the gold deposits of to-day. 

East of the Mother Lode, from one to three miles, 
a ridge of feldspathic rock runs parallel with the 
lode across the county. In some places, it is a com- 
pact granite; in others, a gneissoid granite. It is 
traversed in places by dikes of trap and largo veins 
of barren quartz. At Quartz mountain, on the line 
of this granitic ridge, is an immense deposit of 
quartz, low grade ore. The auriferous slates of the 
county are arenaceous, argillaceous, and quartzose, 
sometimes changing in a few rods, from magnesian 
to aluminous, or to hard, blue metamorphic slates. 
These slates further change as we go west, and ,at 
the Newton copper mine we find them an argillaceous 
shale. 

When excavations are made in the alum slates, 
a deposit of that mineral forms on the damp walls, 
and waters flowing from tunnels in the slates, are 
sometimes heavily charged with alum from decom- 
posing pyrites of iron. These slates, as has been 
determined from fossils, found further north in Plu- 
mas county, belong to the upper triassic and Jurassic 
epoch. 

The auriferous slates on either side of the great 
Mother Lode are of the same age as the Jura Alps, 
and hence Jurassic. They have a width of about 
thirty miles from east to west. Five miles from 
Jackson, on the Yolcano road, we find these slates 
divided by an immense ridge of granite; and three 
miles east of the town of Yolcano, the granite rocks 
commence and extend, with slight interruptions, to 
the summit of the great chain of the Sierras. All 
the country rock, between these granite ridges, 
which cross the county in a northerly direction, is 
occupied by the auriferous slates — except where 
the carboniferous limestone divides it. There 
are several strata or formations of the limestone 
which cross the county in the same general direction 
that the quartz veins do. These limestones mark 
the near shore-line of a carboniferous ocean, and are 
the work of the coral polyps that once existed on 
the golden shores of Amador. It is a well-known 
fact that the coral insect does not live and work at 
a greater depth than one hundred feet; and at the 
period when these limestones were formed, the land 
lay at the bottom of a shallow sea; or the rising 
Sierras shifted the receding shore-line continually 
to the west. Hence we find the greatest deposit 
of the limestones on the east of Volcano, where 
they have a width of three thousand feet. Between 
Yalcano and Sutter, we find two narrow strata of 
limestone; and three or four miles to the west of 
Sutter, we find the last, or most western, strata of 
the carboniferous limestones. 

These limestones do not contain a fossil of the 
18 



coral polyps, who built them; not even with the 
microscope can they be detected. The strata has 
been so metamorphosed and changed by pressure, as 
to destroy the form, and change its beautiful coral 
formations (as found in the limestones of the same 
age in Shasta county), into crystalline marble. 
This limestone is a white, crystalline, saccharoidal 
marble of fine and coarse texture, Avith veinings of 
oxide of iron and black oxide of manganese. It is 
traversed, in many places, by heavy and light trap- 
dikes. 

Previous to the deposition of the gold-bearing 
gravel upon it the rock has been worn by the action 
of the elements into the most fantastic shapes. By 
the removal of the auriferous gravel coveririg, the 
limestones, domes and spires, monuments and towers, 
of dark-veined marble have been exposed to view, 
presenting an imposing appearance. It is full of pot- 
holes formed by the action of water, and deep, 
curiously eroded cavities, once filled with gold-bear- 
ing gravel. 

Caves, caverns, and long, sinuous galleries have 
been formed by the eroding waters carrying the car- 
bonate of lime in solution, depositing it at different 
parts of the deposit, in many instances decorating 
the roofs and floors of the caverns with beautiful 
stalagmite and stalactite formations. The lime- 
stone belt is crossed by quartz veins of small size. 
Layers of flint, or chert, possibly formed from the 
cast-off shells of diatoms, are found along the line 
of the marble and slaty beds of the same rock. The 
gravel deposits, which at Yolcano have been exten- 
sively worked for gold, rest on the auriferous slates 
as well as the limestones. Beneath the limestones 
the slates are not found. 

In the ridge north of the town (Volcano) the 
auriferous gravel is overlain by horizontal beds of 
white and pink tufa or volcanic materials, consisting 
of ashes and pumice cemented and stratified by 
water. Upon these horizontal strata rests a mass of 
trachyte, broken into rounded forms on the surface. 
Under this massive volcanic ridge, the entire aurifer- 
ous belt plunges, re-appearing on the opposite side, 
at Fort John. 

Between the Yolcano basin and the.Mokelumne 
river is another high ridge of volcanic materials, 
under which the auriferous belt passes in a southerly 
direction. 

These volcanic ridges — which may be met with all 
along the western slopes of the main chain, extend- 
ing in parallel courses from the summits of the high 
Sierras to the low tertiary foot-hills, which in many 
instances they cap with a shallow deposit — extend 
in a continuous line to the summit of the Sierra 
Nevada. 

These ridges push out in detached masses to the 
confines of the Sacramento valley, where, becoming 
thinner and thinner, they have finally stopped, and 
are found on the summits of the low tertiary hills 
around lone valley. 



138 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Near the surface in some of these tufa deposits, 
may ho found beautiful specimens of what are called 
photographic rock — dendritic formations; generally 

resembling delicate tracery of trees and shrubs. 

Somo of the pictures are ideal landscapes, with 
hill, valley, and lake; the lake in the foreground, 
bordered by grass and ferns, the low hills in the back- 
ground with palmate and branching trees, delicate 
as sea mosses. They are not, as supposed, nature's 
photographs, but arc formed by waters, holding 
black oxide of manganese in solution, percolating 
through the fissures in the rock. These formations 
are abundant in the claims of McLaughlin & Co., on 
Union Flat, and Whitney & Co., on the same range 
near Yolcano. 

The Jurassic and carboniferous strata are overlain 
by the strata of the tertiary and post-pliocene, with 
boulder or glacial drift and aluvium deposits. The 
volcanic deposits cap the whole, and are consequently 
the latest formations. 

GLACIAL EVIDENCES. 

On the summits of many of the high ridges, both 
exposed and under the lava flow, are deposits of 
glacier drift, in places rich in gold. The question 
with many is, how these immense polished boulders 
have been left on the summits. 

The solution of the question is that they were carried 
there in the glacial period, after having been torn 
from the numerous quartz, and other ledges, over 
which the glacial flow passed, carrying them over 
valley and hill — as they are known to have traveled 
— from a northerly direction. The great body of 
ice, possibly two or three miles in thickness, acted as 
a mighty arastra, grinding down the quartz lodes, 
pulverizing the mass, polishing the boulders, and 
depositing the gold in the drift (to be concentrated 
afterwards by the flowing streams from the melting 
ice), wearing down the slates, and leaving the aurifer- 
ous gravel in the beds of the rivers and gulches, filling 
the great valley of the Sacramento to an unknown 
depth. The Stockton artesian well, sunk to a depth 
of eleven hundred feet, did not go through the deposit, 
nor the well at the Sacramento sugar refinery, two 
thousand two hundred feet in depth, the auger 
bringing up gold, quartz, and wood, at a depth of 
two thousand feet. We mention these deep sinkings 
in the valley to show that the debris, for countless 
ages, has been pouring into the valleys, and must 
for countless ages to come. Three miles west of the 
town of Amador we find evidences of glacial deposit. 
On the summit of one of the volcanic ridges, min- 
gled with the huge, rounded trachyte boulders, are 
fifteen granite glacier-polished boulders. The larg- 
est is thirteen feet long by seven and one-half feet 
wide; the part above ground is five feet high. It 
contains fifty tons of rock, and has the ovid or 
sheep-back form peculiar to glacial boulders. The 
others, all similar in appearance, are much smaller. 
There is no granite of the same character nearer 



than twenty miles north-east, in an air line. Wo 
followed the lino of the glacier drift over tho vol- 
canic ridges, and down the deep canons, to near 
Upper Ilanchcria, where we again came upon the 
same character of granite boulders, but distant from 
the first mentioned by ten or twelve miles. They 
are from five to thirty tons weight. They mark the 
line of the glacial flow, and their polished sides show 
the action of the moving ice. 

VOLCANOES. 

There are no well-defined volcanoes, with the ex- 
ceptions of Butte mountain, near Jackson, and one 
west of Tragedy Springs, near Silver lake. At the 
last-mentioned point, there are evidences of the most 
stupendous volcanic outbursts, and from this point 
the lava ridges may be traced for forty miles or 
more, toward the valley of the Sacramento. These 
lava rivers in the volcanic epoch, flowed down tho 
lowest places, or river beds. As the ages rolled on, 
the eroding waters and high mountain glaciers, wore 
the softer slates away, and left these ridges, as we 
find them to-day, the most elevated portion of the 
county. That portion of the county to the east of 
the great Mother Lode, is traversed, to a greater 
or less extent, by igneous rocks, mostly trap and 
diorite. These dikes cut through all formations, 
and are found extending to the boulder drift and 
aluvium deposits. (According to Clarence King, 
United States geologist, they were erupted in the 
cretaceous, or chalk period.) They are from a few 
inches in width to many (sometimes five hun- 
dred) feet wide. We have traced many of them for 
a distance of two miles, through several formations. 
They are, in many instances, intimately connected 
with the formation of quartz lodes; and where they 
cut a ledge or intersect it, deposits of rich ore are 
often found. In the Pioneer district, five miles east 
of Yolcano, the small quartz lodes in the granite, 
owe their origin to these trap-dikes; they are what 
is known as segregated lodes, that is, drawn from 
the granite by the heat of the ascending dike. 

Trap-dikes cross the basin on which the town of 
Yolcano is located, in almost all directions. The 
richest placer deposits have been found in close 
proximity to these erupted dikes, on one or the 
other side. They appear to have acted as gigantic 
riffles during the glacial period, and held the gold 
as it was ground out of the abundant quartz lodes, 
much as is common in a sluice at the present time. 
A large dike of doleritic trap rock, with large crys- 
tals of augite, malacolite, and sahlite, of a dingy 
green color, passes just above the falls on Indian 
gulch, near Yolcano, and through which a tunnel 
has been driven. This heavy dike of igneous rock 
changed the inclosing limestones to a coarse crys- 
talline carbonate of lime, some of the crystals an 
inch square. Some very good marble has been 
formed in the same way, at various places on the 
limestone belt. This great dike, in a few hundred 



GEOLOGY OF AMADOR COUNTY. 



139 



feet, frays out into numerous small dikes; some of 
them cutting small quartz veins, in the here silicious 
limestones, which show gold where the trap passes 
through the quartz. 

Butte mountain gives indubitable evidence of hav- 
ing been erupted on the spot, the molten matter 
coming up through an opening in the slates. We 
find the conical mountain composed of volcanic rocks 
and ashes, resting on the auriferous slates. This 
mountain is a conspicuous figure in the landscape, 
and the view from its summit, extensive and grand. 

COPPER. 

What is known as the copper belt, and on which 
the Newton copper mine is located, passes across 
the county five or six miles to the west of the great 
Mother Lode. The slates in this section are the 
magnesian and argillaceous. Large ledges and 
strata of serpentine rocks cross and cut these slates 
in all directions. The ore obtained at the Newton 
mine is the sulphuret, known as chalcopyrite, the 
yellow oxide of copper. There is some iron pyrites 
mixed with the ore to a greater or less extent, 
which lowers the percentage of the ore correspond- 
ingly; red oxide is also obtained in smaller quanti- 
ties. 

The process of working is simple. The ore is 
roasted, then leached, and the copper precipitated 
with iron, or rather, collected on iron scraps. 

Along this copper belt are numerous croppings 
and evidences of the existence of other deposits of 
copper, and the future prospector may yet uncover 
mines equal to the one described above. 

MINERALS. 

Iron is abundant; and the day is not distant when 
the inexhaustible iron deposits of Amador will be 
profitably worked. 

Wood is abundant for the manufacture of char- 
coal; limestone of the best quality for smelting 
purposes without limit; andiron ore of a good grade 
beyond computation. It is on every hand; in the 
limonite that binds the gravel beds in solid conglom- 
erate to lodes or deposits of great extent ; in 
masses of dark steel-gray hematite, and lodes of 
magnetic iron ore; in specular iron; in masses of 
iron and black oxide of manganese; in ocherous 
earth and jaspery croppings; in stalactites and small 
beautiful specimens of titanic ore; last but not least, 
in the blood-red soil of the environing hills. 

GYPSUM. 

Small deposits of sulphate of lime have been found 
at various points in the county, but not in paying 
quantities. The future explorer may develop quan- 
tities of the mineral. 

ASBESTOS. 

Small veins of the above mineral exist all over the 
county, changing from the fibrous to immense ledges 
of steatite of a coarse variety. 



MARBLE. 

Marble of a good qualit) 7 , and of different shades 
from blue-veined to crystalline white, is found along 
the limestone belt. Small quantities of onyx are also 
found in the same vicinity. 

MANGANESE. 

Small veins of the above mineral are also met 
with. 

KAOLIN. 

A good quality of potter's clay is found in hori- 
zontal deposits near Carbondale, and around lone 
Valley. A good deposit of the same mineral exists 
at Aqueduct City. 

Accompanying the quartz veins, in many instances 
forming selvedge or " gouge," as it is called by the 
miners, is a fair quality of kaolin; formed from decom- 
posed feldspar. 

AGATE — CHALCEDONY. 

In Soldiers' gulch, back of the town of Volcano, 
is a quartz vein passing through the gravelly deposit, 
formed, by the action of water holding silica in 
solution, since the deposition of the gravel. It is a 
ferruginous, jaspery vein of geodic chalcedony and 
agate. Some of the cavities are most beautifully 
lined with silicious crystalline deposits of these 
minerals. 

About one hundred feet to the north of the above- 
described curious jaspery formation, is a dike or 
trap, which, when erupted, baked the clay on either 
hand for a distance of fifty feet into porcelanite, a 
species of jasper. Near this dike we found several 
casts of bones of the megatherium (?) — a gigantic 
animal that existed in the tertiary period. The casts 
are of porcelanite, and very large. 

In some of the clay slates, all over the county, we 
found tracks and borings of worms and rain-drop 
impressions, and in the hard blue slates along the 
Mother Lode, we frequently find the wave marks 
left by the receding Jurassic sea. In a mining claim 
(at Volcano) near the junction of the slates and lime- 
stones, we found some fine specimens of ferruginous 
lignite, or in other words, fossil woods changed to 
iron ore, the fibre of the wood clear and distinct. 
Here we also found a similar sample of palm wood, 
the bark still remaining on the Avood. The other 
woods found presented a fibre similar to alder and 
maple. We also found fossil plants, two in number, 
all of which probably belonged to the triassic slates. 
In the high volcanic ridge, known as Shake ridge, 
about three miles north-east of Volcano, is the tunnel 
of W. Q. Mason, which has been driven under the 
volcanic matter or lava, through the channel rim of 
slates, cutting an ancient river bed, or lacustrine de- 
posit. The thinly laminated clayey deposit, has been 
formed in still water, as may be determined from the 
position of the fossil vegetation. Chai'red wood and 
ferruginous lignite, or wood changed to iron ore, is 
abundant. Mr. Mason has a pine cone — a beautiful 



140 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



specimen, changed into Bulphuret of iron, Here we 
found between the thin, claj ey layers, i be loavesofthe 
following trees: Alder, willow, oak, maple, fig, and a 
very large leaf we could not determine. These 
leaves, and what appeared to be the fronds of a 
species of fern, are abundant, forming a deposit in 
some places two or three feet t hick. They are very 
fragile, and all attempts to preserve them, even for 
a' few days, were futile. 

The fossil plants belong to the tertiary period, and 
the volanic flow, that ended their existence, car- 
bonized and preserved their varied forms intact. 
Similar leaves and fossil woods are found, in and 
around Jackson and lone valleys, beneath the hori- 
zontal clay strata that form the hills. 

Fossil remains of the elephant and mastodon have 
been found at various places in the county by miners 
and others. 

In Jackson valley they have been upturned. by 
the plow. At Grass Valley a tusk of a mastodon, 
nine feet long, was washed from the auriferous 
gravel deposits. 

At one period of time in the geological history of 
Amador, the rhinoceros (an animal allied to the 
hippopotamus), an extinct species of horse, and an 
animal allied to the camel, wandered through the 
palm groves and tropical woods of Arcadian Ama- 
dor; none of these survived the grand catastrophe 
that swept them from the earth and buried their 
bones with the destroyed groves through which 
they wandered under the great lava-covered ridges, 
in the ancient river beds of to-day. 

The feathery palm lifted its proud head to a trop- 
ical sun; the wild fig dropped its fruit along the 
streams, and the maple flourished on the gently 
rolling hills; gigantic ferns grew in rank luxuriance 
around the margin of the placid lake; birds of gay 
plumage winged their flight through flowering 
groves, and the air was rank with heated vapors. 

But a change came over the spirit of the dream; a 
geological epoch had been accomplished, and the 
rising Sierras, with their teeming volcanoes, lit up 
the eastern heavens with a lurid glare, sending 
down streams of lava and volcanic material, burying 
the remains of those animals beneath the fiery flood. 
Later the elephant and the mastodon wandered over 
the hills and valleys of our county, only to be swept 
away by the seas of ice, or ground to atoms beneath 
its accumulated weight, leaving their remains as 
evidence of their existence. 

BOTANY OF A3TADOR COUNTY. 

Sugar Pine (Pinus Lambertina ) — The first and 
grandest tree of the Sierras, which should have been 
named pinus saccharina, an appropriate and suggest- 
ive name. It deposits a sugary mass, similar to the 
manna of the druggist, but a mild cathartic, although 
pleasant to the taste. 

This majestic tree, with its long horizontal branches 
and pendant cones of twelve to twenty inches in 



length, towering high above its fellows, forms a most 
attractive figure in the landscape. The white pine 
lumber from this tree is the best met with in the 
Sierras. 

Pitch Pine (Pinus ponderosa) — Comes next in value, 
and immense quantities are sawed into lumber and 
shipped to the valleys, or floated down the ditches to 
the mines at Sutter, Amador, and other places. 

Arbor Vita? (Thugia gigantea) — Or the noble fir, is 
found in the deep canons a few miles east of Volcano. 

Eed Fir (Abies Douglasli) — Is also found on the 
volcanic ridges, and down the canons. 

Balsam Fir ( Picca grandis) — Is also met with, and 
used for economical purposes. 

The White Cedar ( Labrocedus ducurens) — Is a beau- 
tiful tree, and many attempts have been made to 
transplant it to the valley homes, for ornamental pur- 
poses, but with only partial success. 

Nut or Rock Pine (Pinus sabiana) — Is found grow- 
ing on the rock lands of the western part of the 
county, and along the carboniferous limestones, bear- 
ing a large cone full of edible nuts. The wood is poor, 
even for fire- wood. 

Nutmeg Tree (Torreya Calif ornica) — Which grows 
into a stately tree in the Coast Eange, here only 
reaches a small shrub. The nuts are not like the 
nutmeg of commerce, except in outside appearance. 
The meat is edible, but the squirrels usually get it. 

Western Yew (Taxus breoifolia) — Found in the 
eastern part of the county, as also the mountain 
spruce. 

Bay Tree, or Mountain Jjnuvel (Oreodnphne Califor- 
nia) — A beautiful, spicy tree, which grows to an 
immense size in the Coast Eange, but here, only to a 
respectable shrub. 

White Oak (Quercus Lobata) — Differs from that 
found east of the Rocky Mountains. 

Quercus Agrifolia — Quite plenty on the ridges, and 
around lone valley. 

Canon Live-Oak (Q. Crysolepsis) — A valuable 
wood for ship timbers. 

California Chestnut (Castanopsis Chrysophylla) — A 
shrubby tree; grows on the rocky lands. 

Hazelnut (Corylus Rostrata) — In the canons and 
north hill-sides; bears nuts in small quantities. 

Alder (Alnus Viridis) — Found growing along the 
streams. In the Coast Eange is used for powder- 
wood. 

Common Willow (Salix Biglowii) — Found in large 
trees along the creeks and streams. 

Cottonwood Poplar (Populus monilifera) — Large 
trees; in some instances along the creeks. 

Bayberry or Wax Myrtle (Myrica California) — 
On moist hill-sides and streams. 

Leather Wood (Dirca palustris) — A bush six to ten 
feet high; grows on dry ridges; very tough. 

Alder Buckthorn (Rhammus California) — From 
five to ten feet high ; called Wild Coffee from the fact 
the berry contains seeds that resemble coffee, and 



**";isMr 




^Xca a*2#2 



/ 






ORIGIN OF MINERAL VEINS. 



141 



have been so used, but it is distinct from the true 
coffee plant. 

Mountain Lilac (Ceanothus thyrsiflorus ) — Two va- 
rieties, blue and white; a fragrant, handsome tree or 
shrub. 

Ceanothus papillosus — Resembles the last; found in 
the mountains; the body of the tree is full of nobs 
made by the attacks of insects; used for canes on 
account of this peculiarity. 

ROSE FAMILY. 

Wild Cherry (Prunus ilicifolia). 

Mountain Holly ( Heteromeles arbutifolia) — Grows as 
high as twenty feet, with beautiful red berries, 
which ripen in January or February; much sought 
by birds. 

Service Berry ( Amelanchier alnifolia) — Grows high 
in the mountains. 

Chaparral- Chemisal (Adenosioma fascicidatum) — 
Grows from five to twenty feet high; covers the 
rocky hills to the exclusion of all other trees. 

MAPLE FAMILY. 

Buckeye Horse-chestnut (xEsculus C alifornica)—A 
beautiful tree in the Spring when in bloom; nut used 
by the Indians for food, who soak the poison out 
with water. 

Big Leafed Maple ( Acer macrophyttum) — Grows into 
a small tree. 

Poison Oak ( Rhustaxico dendron) and {Rhus dioer- 
silolba) — Either variety of which will make the visitor 
wish he or she had not met with it. This obnoxious 
shrub grows all over the State. 

HEATH FAMILY. 

The Madrona or Strawberry Tree of the Spaniards 
(Arbutus Menziessii) — A beautiful tree with orange 
colored branches and deep green varnished leaves; 
bears a red berry of which the wild pigeons are fond. 

Manzanita ( Arctostaphylos tomentosa) and (A. 
Glanca) — Two varieties; bears berries, which the 
Indians gather in large quantities, of which they 
make a kind of cider. 

Flowering Dogwood (Cornus Nuttallii) — A beauti- 
ful tree when in bloom. 

C. Ccdifornica — Grows mostly along the streams: 
another species of Dogwood. 
. Elder ( Sambucus glauca ) — Bears edible berries. 

C cdifornicum Rhododendron — Is found in some 
parts of the county. 

Of plants, we have, lilies, saxifrages, orchides, 
equisetce, sedges, etc., ferns in variety, wood mosses, 
and lichens; there are lupines, orthocarpus; the 
popp} 7 famil} r is represented by three or four beauti- 
ful species, and the lilies by as many. 

There are two or three species of violets. 

This list might be extended much farther. 



CHAPTER XXVI 1. 

ORIGIN OF MINERAL VEINS. 

Plutonic Theory — Ocean Floors — Other Theories Considered — 
Function of Wall Rock and Gouge — Surface Veins — 
Probable Depth of Veins— Methods of Deposit — Jurassic 
Gravel — Course of the Blue Lead. 

It may seem presumptuous to offer any ideas on 
the formation of the various metaliferous veins that 
ramify through our mountains; but between those 
who think God called all things into existence just as 
they are, and those who can readily explain every- 
thing^) there is quite room enough for many persons, 
however different their opinions, to stand without 
jostling each other. Notwithstanding all the dis- 
coveries in science, and they are many and of great 
importance, we are but on the boundaries of the 
infinite field, for natural science, in any of its thou- 
sands branches, is an illimitable expanse which 
would require an eternity to explore. 

An elaborate treatise on the formation of mineral 
veins would be out of place in a volume of this kind, 
even if the writer were capable of such a work; 
hence only matters pertaining to the industries of 
the county will find place here. Thirty years' 
experience in gold and other mining, much of which, 
for want of knowledge, has been unprofitable, has 
left many valuable hints, which, like trees blazed 
by the pioneer through the pathless woods, serve to 
guide those who come after. An abandoned shaft 
or mine should tell its tale of warning, and when 
properly interrogated will probably do so. 

PLUTONIC THEORY. 

It was formerly held that all mineral veins were 
the result of internal heat, which out of an immense 
amount of material always hot, molten, sent some 
small fragments to the upper earth. Nearly all the 
rocks were supposed to have the same origin; but 
the inexplicable difficulties which this theory led to, 
soon caused its abandonment. The metalic veins 
were too finely ramified, reticulated through the 
rock, to admit of that method of deposit. If the 
metaliferous lodes had been raised to the necessary 
degree of heat for fusion, the wall rocks or casings 
would have been destroyed or vitrified; whereas, 
the slate or other rocks in the vicinity of a vein are 
frequently unchanged. The ribbon quartz, consisting 
of parallel layers sometimes not thicker than paper, 
and extending for hundreds of feet in length and 
depth, would be impossible by the Plutonic theory. 
Then again, known eruptive rocks are entirely differ- 
ent from the rocks in which minerals are found. 
Lava beds contain no gold or silver. 

OCEAN FLOORS. 

It is now a favorite theoiy with many that metal- 
iferous veins are deposited in floors of the ocean pre- 
vious to their upheaval into mountain ranges, and 
that the metals are precipitated by chemical action; 
in proof of which we are cited to the precipitation 



142 



IIISTOUY OK \MA!)OI! COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



of iron by vegetable matter on a sea-shore. The 

sea of Sargasso, which is an immense field of sea- 
weeds in mid-ocean, near the tropics, must bo, 
aooordingto this theory, a vast mineral bed, perhaps 
of gold and silver. We hope no one, in consequence of 
this suggestion, will get up an expedition to stake off 
and work this mineral bed, although it might prove 
fully as profitable as a Cocos island investment. It 
is certain that nature is a unit in all her works, and 
that all things work together for final results. We 
have seen in the deposits at the foot-hills, which 
probably have an extension into the plains, or 
former bed of the bay, the deposits of silicious 
matter in the shape of infusoria, which forms beds 
several feet in thickness. Mid-ocean, which receives, 
though slowly, the same material, held in suspension 
by the water, is consequently reproducing a similar 
formation in the bottom of the ocean. Let us suppose 
that the Saeramento valley be buried twenty thou- 
sand feet deep, — in slickens, if you please, — and that 
after remaining long enough at that depth for the 
layers of sand, clay, and gravel, to become indurated 
or solidified, it begins to slowly emerge as a mount- 
ain range. Let us now consider the minerals likely 
to be found in the rocks. The best statistics of the 
composition will be a list of the materials which 
have been dumped into the bay by the rivers. 
According to the best authorities, twenty thousand feet, 
at least, of rocks have been ground or torn away. 
Much of this was gold-bearing; indeed, there is 
much evidence in favor of the opinion that the rich- 
est portions of the quartz veins were on the surface. 
No twenty-five pound lumps have been found in the 
veins. The gold found in the gulches may have 
been the coarser particles, rounded by attrition of 
all this tremendous denudation. How much of the 
gold was originally coarse ? How much of that 
now found in the quartz veins, if ground in a canon 
of rocks like those found in any mountain river, 
would leave coarse rounded gold ? Free gold is usu- 
ally found in threads and spangles. The Hayward 
vein, the Keystone, the Plymouth, did not enrich the 
gulches to any extent. The series of rich surface 
veins, near Mace's ranch, hardly make a ravine worth 
working, so fine is the gold. The fine gold of the 
veins, as well as the particles worn off the sprangly 
threads, leaving the rounded dust or nuggets, has 
gone into the valley, and is deposited in an impalpa- 
ble state in the sand, clay, and gravel, or, perhaps, 
more finely divided, has gone to sea, to be deposited 
in the mid-ocean beds of earthy deposits. We may 
trace it farther than this; some of it may be held in 
solution. The Platner pi'ocess of dissolving gold in 
hydrochloric acid, has shown how it is possible for 
the sea-water to hold it in solution, and has, perhaps, 
given us a hint of its possible recovery thei'efrom. 
How about the proportion left in the gulches? 
When one looks at the operations of a glacier, which 
reduces everything in its grasp to the finest clay; 
and to such canons as the American, Mokelumne, or 



Cosumnes rivers, which take in tons in weight of 
hard, flinty rocks, reduce them to powder, and send 
them out on the plains as slickens, and asks what has 
become of the soft gold, it must be answered: It is 
not destroyed, but not one per cent, of it is left to be 
mined out in the rivers; not a quarter of one per 
cent. even. For every million that goes to the mint, 
more than five hundred has been lost as far as the 
present race is concerned. It may be worked out 
when our Sierras and the deep sea shall exchange 
places, but not before. 

To continue the illustration of the formation of 
quartz veins: the layer of rock over and, perhaps, 
under the ranges of sand or gravel containing the 
gold, shall be firm, consistent, holding water, and 
forming a subterranean channel, such as the water 
in our artesian wells flows through, these tight floors 
and roofs becoming the wall rocks of our future 
vein. When these strata are upheaved so far as to 
have one portion of the "TJ " several hundred feet, 
or perhaps a thousand feet, higher than the other, 
the lower portion reaches down to depths where the 
heat maybe much above the boiling point, this being 
reached at the depth of twelve thousand seven hun- 
dred and twenty feet, or an increase of one degree 
for each sixty feet of descent. The iron, sulphur, 
potash, soda, and other minerals, usually found with 
all ores, were not mentioned in connection with the 
gold, supposed to be in the soil of the Sacramento 
valley, for the reason that they are so common as 
to be perceptible in every soil. When this arrange- 
ment has been completed, the process of depositing 
mineral veins may be considered to have commenced. 
It is not essential that more than one end of the 
" U," or succession of them, shall be exposed. We 
only stipulate for such an arrangement as will allow 
the rain-water which falls on the top of the mount- 
ain to sink into the earth and carry along whatever 
mineral it may be able to hold in solution, parting 
now with a particle of potash or sulphur, taking up 
a particle of magnesia, silex, or other minerals, 
until it reaches the alembic, crucible, or laboratory, 
where heat comes in as a stimulant to its holding or 
solvent powers. It is impossible to overestimate the 
capacity of a circulation of this sort. When the 
water reaches the opposite end of the " U," and again 
encounters the cooler temperature of the surface, it 
must gradually part with the greater portion of the 
mineral which it picked up in its long journey, 
though not quite all, for every spring contains more 
or less mineral matter, especially if it emerges in 
such quantity as to exceed the capacity of the 
ground for cooling it, as is the case with thermal 
or hot springs. What would be the consequence of 
a break or crack in the roof or floor of this channel ? 
Would it not result in the formation of a side or 
branch vein ? An irregularity of upheaval which 
shall separate the roof of the subterranean channel 
into numerous parts, would result in setting up new 
lines of deposit, and a consequent weakening of the 



ORIGIN OF MINERAL VEINS. 



143 



main lode. Now, it is a fact, so common in quartz 
mining as to amount to a certainty, that, without a 
good hanging-wall not far away, a vein is almost 
sure to fail. If it were true that the minerals are 
deposited in veins on ocean floors, this condition 
would not be so imperious. 

A cross fracture in the roof-wall would produce a 
cross-vein like the Gate vein, the one east of the Zeile 
mine, and others that might be named. How can 
such veins be accounted for on the supposition that 
the precipitation is while the locality is yet a floor? 
Why should quartz be the .vehicle for gathering 
and retaining gold as well as most other metals ? 
The solution of gold by the Platner process, before 
referred to, may give us a hint as to the chemical 
agency of common salt and sulphur in gathering up 
the gold scattered in impalpable particles through 
the soil and concentrating it in veins; the precip- 
itation by the sulphuret of iron, tells its own story 
also, as this form of iron is constantly associated 
with gold. The free gold and large lumps still 
remain to be accounted for. Some miners of intel- 
ligence believe that gold grows — by accretion — both 
in quartz and gravel. Possibly it does. Who can 
tell when, if ever, the particles of matter, even in the 
hardest rocks, ceased to adjust themselves to each 
other ? J. T. Burke, the oldest and most experienced 
quartz miner in the county, thinks that the quartz 
veins are still receiving gold. It is said that the 
silver mines of Mexico, which were worked three 
hundred years since, have again become rich from 
the flowing through them of water containing silver 
in solution. The copper mines in the lower part of 
the county are known to be in an active condition, 
gaining or losing ores all the time. 

The mineral belts of Amador county .are various 
and extensive, but there are many reasons for believ- 
ing they once were one floor. Beginning with the 
lower veins nearly on a level with the ocean, as the 
last formed, we have the Arroyo Seco lead near 
Muletown on the west, and the Newton lead on the 
east; thence across the axis of elevation (the ser- 
pentine range near the Mountain Spring House), we 
have another extension of the same, but a few miles 
in width, and by no means continuous from north 
to south. Some rich quartz is found in this range, 
and considerable copper, the latter in chimneys of 
small extent. Next is the Mother Lode, which has 
been fully described, the upper end or east side of 
the "U" being near Volcano. East of Volcano is the 
last one to be considered, for the reason that by 
denudation the upper and older lines of elevation are 
nearly erased. Why the lower belt near the foot- 
hills should have copper instead of gold; why the 
middle belt should have the custody of the richest 
quartz veins; why the upper or Volcano range 
should have its veins transverse or at angles, vary- 
ing with the cleavage of the slate, is among the 
many, very many, mysteries. 

So far, we have only taken into account the Assure 



or true veins, which may be considered as those that 
reach the bottom, or continue through the inverted 
syphon. The true fissure vein may be in the shape 
of a chimnej 7 , wide, with a short run north and 
south, or it may be continuous for hundreds of feet, 
with about the same thickness; but in either case 
it may be poor or rich, the essential condition of its 
wealth being, that it must be located in a gold-bear- 
ing soil or lode. A vein of quartz by itself may not 
be rich in gold any more- than a ravine. There are 
quartz mountains in New Hampshire, as well as in 
California; but no gold in them that is known. 

SURFACE VEINS. 

These have an entirely different origin, and in 
general pinch out at no great distance from the 
surface. They are probably produced by the pre- 
cipitation of gold and quartz, held in solution by 
surface streams. Some surface veins are quite rich; 
little fortunes are often made out of them. This is 
the character of many of the veins in the vicinity 
of West Point. A surface vein is characterized by 
a nearly total want of gouge. What this has to do 
with a quartz vein, may not be apparent to the gen- 
eral reader. In all fissures of any extent is found 
a clay, sometimes several inches in thickness, which 
is said to be produced by the slow grinding or rub- 
bing of the walls against each other. The rocks 
and clay are striated, the lines showing the direc- 
tions of these oscillations, which are not necessarily 
perceivable, in a generation even. There is apt to 
be a heavier deposit of ore along the gouge, which, 
as a usual thing, also is a water-course. If the fis- 
sure is but temporary, extending down a few hun- 
dred feet at most, below which the rock is solid, 
there can be no grinding or rubbing of the walls 
together, and, consequently, no gouge. These sur- 
face veins are in constant formation, though some 
of them probably are contemporaneous with the true 
fissure veins. A small quartz vein will sometimes 
form in a. lava bed; also in the coal veins, or beds 
of lignite, in the foot-hills. They are found in the 
tertiary or sandstone hills of the Coast Range, some 
of the veins having considerable gold in them. These 
hills, by the way, though in some places thousands 
of feet high, bear marks of a birth long subsequent 
to the Sierras, and are, probably, in great part com- 
posed of the debris from the summits of the Sierras, 
when they had not yet bared their heads of granite. 
The cement of old buildings sometimes contains thin 
veins of crystallized quartz. The gold-bearing veins 
of steatite near lone, probably were enriched the 
same way; that is, by sui'face action. Let our 
future chemists take a hint from this in the reduc- 
tion of gold quartz. 

PROBABLE DEPTH OF VEINS. 

It is well settled that quartz and other mineral veins 

i have no particular connection with the center of the 

earth, but are surface affairs, extending no deeper 

than the deposits of rocky matter that in the great 



1 II 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



cycle of events is now filling up an ocean, and dow 
being lifted I" be denuded and senl again to the bot- 
tom of the deep sea. tf the slope in the Keystone, 
Gover, and SeatOn mines were maintained for a few 
thousand feel it would be apt to meet theboltoni of the 
• -V," or inverted syphon. Thewallrocb of t lie Consol- 
idated Amador failed atone thousand seven hundred 
and fifty feet ; oilier mines may extend to greater 
depths, but if they could or should be worked down 
to greater depths, probably the wall rock would be 
found gradually getting flatter. Indeed, the univer- 
sal testimony is that after the permanent vein is 
reached a change in the direction of the vein is 
always towards a horizontal. The opinion sometimes 
entertained, that the quartz veins extend to intermin- 
able depths is probably erroneous, though the limit 
may never be reached by any known methods of 
working deep mines. 

METHODS OF DEPOSIT. 

An uneducated person, when first shown a piece of 
crystalized quartz, is apt to form the opinion that it 
had been melted and run into that shape, but a little 
observation will convince him that the regular forms 
must be the result of a general law resulting from the 
adjustment of the particles to each other. In some 
specimens of crystals we may see the lines of deposit 
which are always parallel to the terminal faces. 
In examining veins of quartz of different localities, 
we find some in fine layers (like ribbons when viewed 
edgewise), not thicker than paper. The slightest 
amount of iron, lime, or other mineral, in solution 
with the silicious matter, will suffice to mark the 
lines of deposit. In other veins, which appear to be 
solid, we may get a hint of the method of deposit 
by the lines of decomposition or decay, which show 
an arrangement of particles like melting ice, which 
does not melt in parallel lines, but in cavities. So a 
quartz vein will show a deposit of irregular crystals 
adhering to the sides of a cavity and gradually 
approaching each other until they unite and become 
solid. This seems to be a common form of deposit 
in the recent or surface veins. In other cases the 
quartz is in nodules or amorphous bunches. This is 
the case in the Keystone where the bunches are 
sometimes so large as to contain forty thousand tons 
of rich milling ore. The Hayward had a boulder 
vein also, though it would scarcely pay for milling. 
A more thorough investigation may show a uniform 
and decided difference in the lines of deposit of sur- 
face and true fissure veins, by which their character 
may be determined. 

JURASSIC GRAVEL. 

Geologists have determined the gold-bearing quartz 
and adjoining rocks to belong to the Jurassic age. 
This classification is said to rest on the discovery of 
fossil reptiles, and is probably correct. The point to 
note in the matter, which seems to have escaped the 
attention of the professors, is the existence of large 
bodies of gravel in different portions of the county, in 



Strata parallel to the quartz veins, and probably 
extending down as far or farther than the quartz 
veins. These veins of gravel are full of quartz peb- 
bles, as well rounded as any that can be found in 
creek or river, and are no spheroidal concretions 
formed when the slates were a plastic mass, but are 
evidently the product of a rapid stream passing over 
auriferous quartz. Where is the stream that rounded 
these pebbles? Where is the system of quartz veins 
winch must antedate the Mother Lode from which 
these pebbles were torn? Where is the mountain 
that gave impetus to these streams that rounded 
them? The beds appear in such quantities and in 
such places and conditions as to forbid the idea of 
their having fallen into a fissure in the earth. They 
have the regular stratification and cleavage of the 
slate; the layers being separated frequently by thin, 
delicate lines of slate such as maybe seen in any allu- 
via! deposit. The gravel may be seen in nearly all 
the canons west of the Mother Lode, but the most 
decided outcrop is about one thousand feet east of 
Drytown, where there are two distinct deposits each 
a hundred feet thick, separated by a strata of the 
black clay slate, common to the country. This reef 
extends the whole length of Murderer's gulch on the 
north, and to the Rancheria hill on the south, a distance 
of two miles, and from the gold found in the ravine 
near by, is evidently gold-bearing. What becomes 
of the Mother Lode theory now ? Here is gravel 
that is as old in its place as the Mother Lode, that 
presupposes an older lode still, not only that, but a 
subsequent upheaval. There is but one conclusion in 
the matter possible; there must have been an older 
Mother Lode, or grandmother, if such a term is per- 
missible, which existed and was in a mountain or 
range of mountains ere the upturning of the slates in 
whose comp'any the gravels rest. As there are some 
two or three thousand feet of clay slate between this 
gravel and the Mother Lode, older than the quartz, 
occupying the inferior position, millions of years 
were necessary for the slow deposit of the clays 
afterwards indurated into slate. Reference to evi- 
dence of a former mineral region, denuded to the 
granite rock in a former age has once before been 
made. 

In the northern part of the State where the integ- 
rity of the mountain tops has been better maintained, 
there are large rivers which seem to run towards the 
south and become lost. The Blue Lead, the largest 
of these, is said to have been traced to El Dorado 
county. As this river was far to the east, occupying 
a much greater altitude, these gravel beds may be 
the lacustrine termination of the Blue Lead which by 
a subsequent upheaval, is now tightly inclosed in its 
coffin of slate. The question, " What has become of the 
Blue Lead? " may possibly be answered here. The 
discovery may have no economic value but it will be 
an interesting leaf to read in the geology of California. 
This lead of gravel, tracing it by the appearance in 
places, seems to have taken a south-western direction 










ARTHUR B. SANBORN. 



/ 



QUARTZ MINING. 



145 



across the county. It may be seen in Sutter creek 
about four miles below the town, and again in the 
southern part of the county near the Mokelumne 
river. Although the veins have never been worked, 
a thorough prospecting might prove them to have 
some economic value. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

QUARTZ MINING. , 

Quartz Mining, Commencement of — Quartz Miners' Convention — 
Account of the Mother Lode — Sketch of Different Mines— 
Gwin Mines — Casco — Murphy's Ridge — Huffaker — Moore — 
Zeile— Description of a Model Mill — Platner Process of 
Reducing Sulplmrets — Hinkley Mine — Monterichard — 
Kennedy — Tubbs — Oneida — Summit — Hay ward— Character 
of the Same— Railroad — Wildman — Mahoney — Union or 
Lincoln — Accident in the Lincoln — Mechanics — Herbertville 
— Spring Hill — Keystone — Consolidation of Granite State 
and Walnut Hill — Discovery of the Bonanza — Statistics of 
Same — Big Grab, and Failure to Hold it — Account of the 
Suit — Original Amador — Bunker Hill — Pennsylvania Gover 
— Black Hills — Seaton — Potosi— Quartz Mountain — -Ply- 
mouth Group — Enterprise — Nashville. 

The intelligent men who worked the gulches and 
rivers in an early day, soon sought the sources of 
the gold. Sometimes gold was found with quartz 
adhering to it, or occasionally a quartz pebble 
riveted through and through with gold. The veins 
of quartz seaming the hills in the vicinity of the 
richest placers, also served to point to that rock as 
the original source of the gold. At Carson Hill, in 
Mariposa county, quartz had been found immensely 
rich; but the expense of blasting the rock out and 
crushing it was such, that no serious attempts were 
made, in Amador county, until 1851. The whole 
country abounded with quartz; in some places there 
were mountains of it, which had filled the ravines 
with broken quartz, where no gold was to be found; 
so that the search for auriferous quartz was a tedious 
affair until men were put upon the scent. 

The first discovery of gold in quartz seems to have 
been made by a man by the name of Davidson, a 
Baptist preacher, in February, 1851, on the south side 
of Amador creek near the spring then used by the 
miners. Boulders of considerable size were lying 
on the top of the ground, supposed to have been 
detached from the vein. Gold was found in some of 
these, and subsequently, in the vein from which these 
came. Associated with Davidson were Glover, 
Herbert, and P. Y. Cool, all ministers; hence the 
claim was known as the "ministers' claim." Samuel 
Hill, afterward a l'esident of Buckeye, was taken in 
as a capitalist, and the company organized as the 
Spring Hill Companj 7 . About the same time, 
Thomas Rickey, and his son James, afterward resi- 
dents of lone, located the vein on the north side of 
the creek, since known as the Original Amador. Gold 
could also be seen in this rock. None of these men 
had ever seen any quartz mining; in fact, there was 
none in the world to compare with what may be 
seen now at any mining town. Hill, of the Spring 
Hill Company, went to Sacramento and bought a 
19 



steam engine, aged and ancient in style, which proved 
a mine of trouble to them, as it took an enormous 
quantity of wood to make steam. The main shaft 
was wood with bearings of round bar iron, two 
inches in diameter, which were driven in with a 
hammer, the end of the log being banded with iron. 
The cams were large spikes of bar iron driven into 
the shaft and afterward bent. The stamps had 
wooden stems, and spikes driven into the stems for 
tappits or projections, against which the cams should 
play to raise the stamps. The gold was saved, or 
rather lost, by means of a rocker about eight feet 
long, worked by the same power as the stamps. 
The machinery proving a failure, was soon rebuilt 
with improvements suggested by experience. 

The mill on the north side was started about the 
same time, September 5, 1851, with somewhat 
better machinery. The shaft was of wood, but had 
axe-bar iron four inches wide and half an inch thick 
for cams, the bai*s being bent after they were put in 
the shaft. The stamps also had wooden stems with 
slots in the middle to receive the cams. Dan Fiddler 
was the master mechanic, and J. T. Bei'ke the 
superintendent of this mine. It made dividends as 
well as wages for its owners, who were all workers. 
Quicksilver was tried, but from some cause failed to 
give satisfactory results. It was also discovered 
that much of the gold was lost, being too fine to 
settle into the ordinary riffles. While experiments 
were being made to remedy the matter, a German 
who had had experience in mining in Peru, pro- 
posed to amalgamate with arastras. With his 
assistance the company took out about seventy-five 
ounces a week, the German receiving one-thirteenth 
part for his share. This was the first successful 
quartz mining in the county. 

QUARTZ MINERS' CONVENTION. 

The discovery of gold-bearing quartz aroused the 
whole country. All were looking forward to the 
time when the gulches and surface claims should be 
exhausted, and there were numbers of men who 
thought this was the case as early as 1851. Quartz 
was now tried everywhere; like any other mining 
craze it went beyond all reasonable bounds. Possi- 
bilities became certainties. A mill had been put up 
at Quartzburg on the Cosumnes river which was 
thought to be making fabulous fortunes for its own- 
ers, which, however, was far from true. It may as 
well be told here that the superintendent, Dr. Har- 
ris, a native of Nashville, Tennessee, brought out 
seventeen thousand dollars to work the mine, drew 
on the company for twenty-eight thousand dollars 
more, and then abandoned the mine to the hired 
hands to make their back wages out of it if they 
could. The lead or Mother Lode, as this system 
of veins, chutes, or chimneys, has been called, 
was soon traced to the Cosumnes on the north, 
and the Mokelumne on the south. All kinds 
of claims were set up and a harvest of lawsuits 



in; 



IIISTOIIV OK AMADOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Beemed impending, when it was resolved to bold a 
quartz oonvention and make regulations to ensure 
i In- peaoe and security of quartz mining, which, after 
a proper notice, was held ai Rancheria, that being 
probably the largest place in the county. 

The following is copied from the book of records 
now in the bands of ML 1!. Church of Drytown. 

"Q0AKTZ MINING LAWs. 

"At a meeting of the miners of Dry Creek, Ran- 
cheria Creek, Amador Creek. Sutter Creek, holden 
near the town of Rancheria, June 7, 1851, in accord- 
ance with previous public notice, for the purpose of 
making rules and regulations for quartz miners, in 
the mining districts hereinafter described. 

" T. J. Law-ton was chosen President; Samuel Her- 
bert, Vice-President; Wm. Salter, Jr., Secretary. 

"On motion of O.L. Palmer, a committee of three 
was appointed consisting of O. L. Palmer, Wm. Pen- 
ton, of Rancheria, and Hiram B. Piatt, of Drytown, to 
prepare resolutions for the consideration of the meet- 
ing. The committee offered the following report, 
which was accepted. 

"Resolved, That rules and regulations for the 
security, peace and harmony of the miners, who are 
now or who may be hereafter engaged in prospect- 
ing and working quartz mines, are positively neces- 
sary. 

"2. — That in compliance with that necessity, we do 
hereby ordain and establish the following rules and 
regulations for the government of the district within 
the following bonds, to wit: All that portion of the 
county of Calaveras that lies south of the dividing- 
ridge between Cosumues river and Dry creek and 
north of the Mokelumne river. 

" 3. — That the size of a claim in quartz veins shall 
be two hundred and forty (240) feet in length of the 
vein without regard to the width, to the discoverer or 
company, and one hundred and twenty (120) feet in 
addition thereto for each member of the company 
that shall now or may be hereafter organized. 

"4. — That no claims, hereafter made, shall be con- 
sidered good and valid, unless the same shall have 
been staked off, in conformity with the provisions 
of Besolution 3, and written notice of the size of the 
claim, and the number of the men in the company, 
posted on a stake or tree at each end of the claim, 
together with the date of the day when the claim 
was made; and all claims now made shall be staked 
off in conformity with these resolutions, within five 
days from the date of the adoption of these resolu- 
tions. 

"5. — That the size of the claim, the names and num- 
ber of men composing the company that holds the 
claim, together with a brief description of the loca- 
tion of the same, so that it may be identified, shall, 
within ten days after the claim is made, be filed in 
the office of the Justice of the Peace, in whose dis- 
trict the same may be located. And all persons 
holding such claims shall file the same within ten 
days from this meeting, and all persons hereafter 
making claims (within ten days after the claims are 
located), or otherwise, said claims shall be forfeited. 

" 6. — In all cases where claims are held by a com- 
pany working jointly, they shall not be required to 
work in more than one place; but where held by 
individuals, each several claim must be worked. 

7. — Whenever a claim has been abandoned, and 
such can be clearly proved before the Justice of the 
Peace, where such filing was made, said claim shall 



be forfeited to the person or persons establishing 

such proof. 

" 8. That these rules, regulations, and proceedings, 

he signed by the president and secretary of this 

meeting, and tiled in the Justice's office at Drytown. 

•'T. J. Lawton, /Yes., 
" Wm. Salter, Sec." 

The number of talented men in this Convention 
was noted, although it was not unusual for such 
bodies, in the early fifties, to be composed of men 
who might have sat in Legislative halls, with credit 
to themselves and all concerned. 

The Convention was hopeful, and even confident, 
of success. Some, who were not in possession of 
satisfactory claims, wished the size to be cut dow r n. 
It was urged that fifty feet of a vein, which probably 
had no bottom, was quite enough to satisfy any 
reasonable man. One thousand dollars a ton was 
set as the probable value of the quartz. Some of 
the veins were fifty, and even a hundred feet wide. 
It was easy to figure up into millions within a short 
distance of the top on a fifty-foot claim. Some 
ventured to say that the quartz would not pay 
a dollar a pound. Mr. Davidson, being a candid, 
unexcitable man, was called upon to give bis opinion 
as to the value of it. He said that he had no wish 
to deceive the Convention, but he doubted if the 
rock would average more than ten cents per pound, 
or tw r o hundred dollars per ton (he had not then 
started his mill); and claims were made one hundred 
and twenty feet, with two extra claims to the dis- 
coverer. What would have been the feelings of the 
Convention if they could have foreseen that one- 
tenth of the sum named would come to be considered 
very rich? Scarcely one of all the number who 
assembled that day, but what retired from quartz 
mining, bankrupt and discouraged. This, however, 
is anticipating. 

Quartz mining was now fairly inaugurated. In 
a short time, the Granite State, the Herbertville, the 
Union. Eureka, Badger, Wolverine (the last three 
being consolidated in the Hayward mine), Oneida, 
all came in a short time. The Grauite State was 
the first to put up a mill with iron shaft, tappits and 
stems. John Conness was a stockholder in this 
mine. Garfield, afterwards Governor of Washington 
Territory, invented the stamp with tapering stem 
and socket, to correspond. Shaking tables were 
introduced in 1852, and were in use until 1860. The 
Chile mill, with rotating balls and revolving barrel, 
was introduced by P. M. Eandal. The last is still 
used. Boasting the ore was tried, but, though it 
was more easily pulverized, it was soon abandoned 
as not satisfactory. The sulphurets were saved by 
means of blankets or rawhides, placed along the 
bottoms of the sluices, and amalgamated in the Chile 
mill, or revolving barrel. 

THE MOTHER LODE. 

Perhaps no term more inappropriate could have 
been selected. The name is inappropriate because 



QUARTZ MINING. 



147 



there is no principal lode or vein at all, but rather 
a series or system of veins, chutes or chimneys along 
a certain range of country, varying in width from 
two hundred to four thousand, or perhaps eight 
thousand feet. In some places there are hundreds 
of veins, as on the Black hills and Murphy's ridge, 
some of which are mere threads, ramifying in every 
direction. In other places, the ore-bearing ground 
is narrowed within walls two or three hundred feet 
apart, as at the Keystone, Plymouth, and the Hay- 
ward mines; though even here, as we shall see, the 
ore is not concentrated in a single vein. The term 
mother, is also misleading, for it gives the idea that 
all other veins are connected somehow, and fed from 
this, than which nothing could be more erroneous. 
Evidently, the first theorists presumed that all 
mineral veins came out of the interior regions of 
the earth, where the fires are always glowing, and 
that down some thousand feet all the veins of quartz, 
big and little,- would come together in one main 
lode, extending the whole length of the State, or as 
far as the gold range extends. 

SKETCH OP THE DIFFERENT MINES. 

The Gwin mine, though in Calaveras county, is 
really the beginning of the series of veins which 
have made Amador the richest county in the State 
in quartz. This is in Rich gulch, which is supposed 
to have derived its wealth from the breaking down 
of the vein matter. The owner, Dr. Gwin, is better 
known as Duke Gwin, from his having that title»con- 
ferred on him for, valuable aid to the Emperor Max- 
imillian of Mexico. The mine is said to be paying 
well. The series of veins here is quite wide, several 
other veins cropping out a thousand feet or more to 
the east. 

The Casco mine is on the north side of the Mokel- 
umne river, and consequently in Amador county. 

This mine was worked in 1868 by J. E. Harden- 
burg some eight hundred feet deep, the rock being 
crushed by a water-mill of twenty stamps, not far 
from the mine. The owner sunk twenty thousand 
dollars in the operation. The Casco mine is on the 
eastern side of the range, which here is quite wide. 
Abraham McKinney has a mine on the west side of 
the range, which is yet undeveloped, but which 
shows some very rich specimens, some of which are 
of singular appearance, containing gold in crystal- 
line forms in coarse granulated quartz. Persons 
who entertain an opinion that gold is deposited in a 
melted state, will find a puzzling problem in these 
specimens. The rock east of here (hanging-wall) is 
syenitic or stratified rock, resembling granite, vary- 
ing in texture and character at every dividing seam. 
On the west the wall rock (foot-wall) is the hard 
metamorphic slate sometimes termed by the miners 
" blue granite." 

MURPHY'S RIDGE. 

This singular formation is the Mother Lode in 
its integrity with the foot and hanging-Avails washed 



away and occupied by ravines, Murphy's gulch and 
Black gulch on one side, and Hunt's gulch on the 
other. It is likely that the gouge, which is generally 
a soft, clayey mass, which seems to have been formed 
by the slow grinding of the walls against the vein, 
gave direction to the course of the water which 
finally eroded them away. On the west side of the 
ridge the miners have followed the gouge down in 
places to a considerable depth for the gold that lies 
on the foot-wall. The ravines were, perhaps, the 
richest ever found in the county, as they were 
worked with profit for twenty years, one set of 
miners after another taking away their "piles." 

The ridge is a network of small veins which ramify 
in every direction through a rather soft earthy slate. 
Some of the seams are immensely rich, four or five 
hundred dollars being taken out of a bucketful .of the 
rotten rock. Sometimes the gold is found in combi- 
nation with arsenic, or arsenical sulphurets, which 
pay a thousand dollars or more to the ton, though 
the tons are not many, as the veins may not be a 
half inch in thickness. In places the ridge is being 
washed down by hydraulic power. As much of the 
gold is too fine to be saved by this process, much 
must be lost. In other instances the small veins of 
quartz are mined out and crushed, paying good 
wages. " There is millions in it," i. e., the hill or 
ridge, but how to get it out economically is the ques- 
tion. Isaac N. Dewitt owns twenty acres of this 
ridge, being a long strip four hundred feet wide along 
the center. 

Many experienced miners think all these veins 
will come together below, and offer as a reason for 
this opinion that the wall rocks are converging as 
they go down. James Morgan, a man with much 
experience in mining, is of this opinion, and is now 
running a cross cut some four hundred feet below the 
summit of the ridge, to test the theory. A shaft 
sunk four hundred feet on the east side of the ridge, 
did not expose any workable vein. 

HUPFAKER LEAD. 

This once very rich mine, some two thousand feet 
or more to the east of the last-named mme, is not 
worked at present. It is said that in 1856 the Huff- 

aker brothers and Harris, found quartz that 

would pay twenty thousand dollars per ton. The 
gold was found in bunches or pockets. Like all 
pocket veins, this one marred about as many fortunes 
as it made. James Morgan is now sinking on this 
lode with good prospects. This vein is believed to 
have supplied the gold that enriched the hills around 
the south side of the Butte Basin. 

THE MOORE MINE 

Is at the head of Hunt's gulch, on the eastern side 
of the Mother Lode. It is a curiosity, and is 
worthy of observation. It is a rather thin vein of 
good looking quartz, with an enormous mass of bar- 
ren quartzose rock for a foot-wall, the whole mass 
•being considerable out of the range of Murphy's 



I IN 



HISTORY or AMADOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 






ridge, which ie bhoughl to be the main lode. North 
of Murphy's the quartz seems to be wanting, though 

a few small veins crop out over a space perhaps half 
a mile wide, some of these being in the hard, meta 
morphio slale, which is supposed to have been the axis 
of elevation when llie mountian chains were formed. 
These veins may he traced along the ridge west of 
Jackson and the Oneida. Though they contain some 
gold they pinchout at a short distance from the sur- 
face, and are avoided by quartz miners. 

There has been considerable prospecting in the 
neighborhood of Jackson, and several times the 
announcement of the beginning of the quartz mining 
era was made, but it never came. So many promising 
mines were discovered that in 1862 the Kearsing 
brothers erected a four-stamp mill and arastra, run 
by water-power, for custom work. The mill was 
afterwards enlarged to ten stamps, but it was not a 
paying concern. In 1862 

THE ZEILE MINE 

Was discovered by Leonard Coney, who put up a 
mill with sixteen stamps, with works to reduce the 
sulphurets, though the Platner process was not intro- 
duced at that time. Some very good runs were made, 
realizing ten thousand dollars per month. In April, 
1866, it was sold by Charles T. Meader, who had 
been running it, to Dr. Zeile, of San Francisco, for 
seventy-five thousand dollars. Work was sus- 
pended until within the past two years, since which 
time new hoisting works and mill, with all the lat- 
est improvements, have been placed on the mine. 
As this is considered the model mill of the county, 
a description of it will be in place. The hoisting 
works over the shaft have powerful pumps, Avhich 
can be set in motion without interfering with the 
other machineiy. An air-compresser saves the work 
of striking the drills, while an automatic dumper 
does away with the dangerous work of bucket land- 
ing, by which so many men have been injured. 
The rock is can-ied on a tramway to the upper story 
of the mill, where a " grizzly " separates the fine 
from the coarse rock, the latter going into a rock- 
breaker, which prepares it for the stamps. From 
the rock breaker the quartz goes to the automatic 
feeder, a machine that seems almost endowed with 
life, so closely does it watch the batteries, supplying 
them with quartz at the moment the stamps begin 
to strike the bed of the mortar. The action is sim- 
ple and reliable. The idea originated with James 
Tullock, of Volcano, Avho erected the first one some 
years ago. Several designs have been patented 
since, but his holds a place yet among quartz-mills. 
The tappit or collar around the stem of the stamp, 
by means of which the cam raises the stamp, is the 
agent employed. It is put in connection with a 
revolving belt or table, containing the quartz to be 
fed to the battery, so that when the stamp descends 
to the bottom of the mortar, the tappit moves the 
table, and drops some rock into the battery, which 



ii continues to do until the want is supplied. An 
automatic feeder is required for each battery. When 

the pulverized quartz has passed through the shak- 
ing fables, and of her machinery for saving the free 
gold, it passes fco the machine known as the " Frue 
Concentrator," for saving the sulphurets. This 
machine is a recent invention, and considered a 
great improvement over either the Buddie or 
the Hendy concentrator. The pulp is caught on 
a wide rubber belt, which, with an oscillating motion, 
is made to carry the tailings up an incline against 
a gentle stream of water, which washes away the 
lighter particles, leaving the sulphurets, which are 
heavier, to adhere, by their own specific gravity, to 
the endless belt, which passes into a water-bath, 
removing the sulphurets, which are thus saved in a 
very concentrated condition. 

THE PLATNER PROCESS 

Of reducing sulphurets was introduced into Cali- 
fornia by a miner by the name of Deakin, and is now 
in general use. By this process the sulphurets form- 
erly lost are made to pay from fifty to six hundred 
dollars per ton, amounting in some instances to twenty 
per cent, of the entire gold product. The "chlorination 
works " is a long building with a furnace some forty 
feet long, and sixteen feet wide with arched roof from 
one to three feet above the floor. There are several 
openings along the sides to put in and withdraw 
the charge, (which, in a furnace of the above size, 
wou^d be about three tons,) also to observe the pro- 
gress of the work. The first heat is moderate and is 
intended to expel the moisture, after which the heat 
is increased and the sulphur is set on fire. This 
burns for some hours, keeping the mass at a dull red 
heat; after the sulphur has burned out the fire must 
be increased so as to drive off the arsenic and other 
base metals. Too much heat will now volatilize the 
gold, which will be found gilding the roof of the 
arch. Too little fire leaves the fine particles of gold 
coated with a metal that would prevent the last and 
most important process (to be described hereafter), 
so that constant watchfulness is requisite, though a 
trusty man, without being a chemist, soon learns the 
necessary treatment. The mass, after being roasted 
from twenty-four to thirty-six hours, is allowed to 
cool off, and is then place in tubs five or six feet wide 
and two feet high with tight-fitting covers, where it 
is subjected for thirty-six hours to the action of 
chlorine gas which dissolves the gold, forming the 
chloride of gold which is soluble in water. The pro- 
cess of making gold soluble is particularly described, 
because it may be necessary to remember this when 
we consider the origin of the gold deposits in the 
quartz veins. The chlorine gas is obtained by the 
action of sulphuric acid on common salt and oxide of 
manganese, all cheap articles. It is a corrosive gas 
eating up other metals as well as gold, and also 
destroys animal matter, purifying the atmosphere of 
offensive odors. Water is now turned into the tubs 



QUARTZ MINING. 



149 



and the gold comes out as a greenish-brown liquid; 
in fact, gold is of a green color, notwithstanding the 
ordinary opinion, as may be seen by looking through 
a very thin film of gold, which will appear of a beau- 
tiful green. Water is run through the mass until no 
green tinge is left. Sulphate of iron (copperas) is 
now added to the solution and in a short time the 
gold begins to settle in the shape of a brown powder, 
which, upon being put in the crucible, melts into gold 
995. fine, worth twenty dollars per ounce. The cost 
of reducing sulphurcts this way is about seventeen 
dollars per ton. It is expected that the cost of 
extracting and reducing ore at this mill will fall 
below two dollars per ton. If this can be accom- 
plished, it will, perhaps, cause many other mines of 
low grade ore to be worked. The works, with the 
powerful and massive machinery, form a wonderful 
contrast to the mills at Amador thirty years ago. 

THE HINKLEY MINE 

Is a pocket mine and was discovered in 1863 while 
the owner was digging a post hole. Some four 
thousand dollars were taken out in a few days. The 
vein is two and a half feet thick at the surface; at a 
depth of forty feet it was five feet thick; turned from 
a perpendicular to a horizontal for thirty feet, and 
then ran down nearly vertically again. It has pro- 
duced eighteen thousand dollars at an expense of six 
thousand dollars. It has many times made its owner 
happy, but the rock when away from a pocket is 
distressingly poor. Mr. Hinkley owns about four 
hundred feet of the vein. 

A few hundred yards east of the Zeile mine is a 
slash vein, so called, running nearly at right angles 
with the ordinary course. At the Gate is another of 
great width and nearly a thousand feet long. They 
are seen occasionally in other parts of the county, 
and, although they have never been worked to any 
extent, they are important as throwing considerable 
light on the formation of quartz veins. 

The Monterichard is a cross vein in the hard 
metamorphic slate about two miles west of Jackson. 
It was discovered in 1876 by a Frenchman who gave 
his name to the mine. It has paid very well, making 
for thirty-two months from two thousand to three 
thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars per month 
with a mill of ten stamps. The vein is narrow, vary- 
ing from six inches to two feet, with walls well 
defined. It was run by James Meehan, Sanguinetti, 
and Muldoon, until March, 1880, when it was sold to 
Lloyd Tevis, of San Francisco, for twenty thousand 
dollars. The new owner put in ten more stamps, 
making a twenty-stamp mill. The vein pinched out 
soon after and the mine is suspended. It is generally 
thought Tevis got the worst of the bargain. 

THE KENNEDY MINE, 

So named from its discoverer, was developed b} T 
John Fullen, James Fleming, and James Bergon, 
working the rock at the Oneida mill. In 1871 it was 



taken by a joint-stock company, the Richlings being 
large owners. The mine has hardly been a success, 
and in 1880 it was closed down. The vein is close to 
the foot-wall and has pitched rapidly to the east, 
following a pitch of nearly forty-five degrees, which 
is considered very flat. It is believed that it will 
eventually join a vein about six hundred feet to the 
east, called the " Volunteer." The lode does not fol- 
low the rift of the slate and consequently is not a 
true fissure vein. 

THE TUBB'S MINE 

Was on the eastern part of the lode near the Gate. 
It did not pay and was shut down. Stephen Kendal 
was the manager of the works. There seems to have 
been no substantial wall rock and consequently no 
permanent vein. 

THE ONEIDA. 

This location was made in 1851, by a number of 
men from the central part of New York. Like all 
the companies engaged at that time in quartz min- 
ing, the Oneida had extravagant expectations. 
When a run had been made, the interested parties 
gathered around to see the batteries cleaned up. 
The sand, quicksilver, and amalgam were gathered, 
and the operator commenced the panning process, 
turning off the quicksilver as it ran together. As the 
sand was washed out the amalgam grew less and less 
as did the prospects of the miners. The whole pro- 
ceeds of several daj^s' crushing finally shrunk to a 
handful containing a few ounces of gold, not half 
enough to pay expenses, to say nothing about a 
fortune. The mill and mine were leased, in 1854, to 
Dr. E. B. Harris for a nominal rent, for the purpose 
of having it developed. He was endowed with 
great physical strength and indomitable energy, as 
well as good judgment, and by selecting good rock, 
and acting as fireman, engineer, amalgamator, 
machinist, miner, and superintendent, by turns, 
making about a dozen men of one and that one him- 
self, he made the mine pay, for that year, about 
twenty thousand dollars over expenses. At that 
time machinery was generally taken to Sacra- 
mento for repairs, necessitating long delays and 
much expense. One day a cam-seat, or groove, 
on the shaft which holds the key gave away, 
and the cam was dangling like a broken leg. 
To take out the shaft and send it to Sacramento 
was expensive, both in time and money, and 
it was resolved to drill a hole through both cam and 
shaft and put a large pin through them to hold the cam. 
By superhuman exertion this was done in about three 
hours, the order to " fire up " ringing simultaneously 
with the coming through of the point of the drill, and 
in half an hour the mill was pounding away. A 
year or two afterward the mine was rented to Swain 
of lone, who in one year lost as much as Harris made. 

The mine afterward fell into the hands of Fullen, 
Flemming, Bergon & Co., who worked it with but 
modex-ate success for some years. About 1865, it 



150 



IIISTOIIY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



was purchased by William M. Stewart, then U.S. 
Senator for Nevada, James Morgan, and others, for one 
hundred thousand dollars, of which sum the share- 
holders received eighty thousand dollars, the other 
twenty thousand dollars going to the negotiators of 
the Hale. SeatOD and Parley. The mine was retim- 
hered, the mill enlarged to sixty stamps, and new* 
hoisting works erected, making the mine an invest- 
ment to tlic stockholders of something over a quarter 
of a million. The vein was fifty feet thick, though 
of low grade, and with improved machinery it was 
expected to realize large dividends; hut the mine 
was an expensive one to work, the walls being soft 
aud apt to swell or crawl, and also full of water. 
Sometimes great masses of soft earth, mud, and 
youye would break loose and run down the stopes 
and shafts, burying up or clogging the lower works. 
Sometimes a shaft would close up, timbers two feet 
in diameter being slowly crushed endwise into kin- 
dling-wood. Where there was so much movement 
underground, the surface must become unstable also, 
and the hoisting works required frequent rebuilding 
or adjustment. The mine proved a losing concern 
and became a grave for aboutfour hundred thousand 
dollars. 

It is now owned by a Boston company, and is 
under the superintendence of Robert Robinson. 
Water-power has been substituted for steam-power, 
making a saving of many thousand dollars in a year; 
the water is to some degree exhausted, and at a 
lower level the walls become harder and more easily 
timbered, so that the mine, almost for the first time 
in its history, has been, perhaps, put on a paying 
basis.* 

The depth on the slope is eleven hundred and 
fifty feet, but at the lower level the vein is nearly 
flat, and the vertical depth is not much over six 
hundred feet. The eastern or lower workings are 
about in a line with the buddle house, perhaps four 
hundred feet east of the shaft. At this point the 
vein, which seems to have followed the rift of the 
slate, and is, therefore, the true fissure, is nearly 
pinched out, and a drift of six hundred feet length- 
wise the vein, failed to discover any swell or deposit. 
A single boulder or bunch of quartz weighing a few 
hundred pounds, and very rich, was all that was 
found at this depth that was encouraging. How this 
was deposited, or perhaps lost there, is a question for 
geologists. As the lower level has been allowed to 
fill up with water, it is probable that no deeper 
explorations are contemplated. 

There are some encouraging indications of a vein or 
body of ore in what is called the west wall. In 
working out bodies of ore left in the upper levels, a 
stringer, or thin vein of quartz, was found leading 
to the west, which experienced miners think indi- 
cates another ore body. If this should be realized 
the mine may have a brilliant future. 

* Since writing the above, we learn that the mine has indefi- 
nitely suspended work. 



North of the Oneida, the range is buried for some 
distance under a pliocene river, with perhaps two 
hundred feet of gravel, sand, and boulders. As this 
has not been found to be rich, no explorations under 
it have been made, and if the lode crops out it has 
not been seen. Farther north is the 

SUMMIT .MINE, 

Or, more properly, a prospect hole, for no paying 
quartz was found, though the shaft was sunk several 
hundred feet deep, at a cost of some twenty or 
thirty thousand dollars. The experiment was made 
b}' Hall McAllister of San Francisco. 

HAYWARD MINE. 

The next mine north of the Summit mine is the 
Consolidated Amador, better known by the name of 
the man whose energy, with a good share of luck, 
developed it into, probably, the best-paying gold 
mine in the world. In 1853 three mines on the 
south side of Sutter creek — Wolverine, Eureka, and 
Badger— were struggling for existence, Alvinza 
Hay ward owning the largest interest in the one last 
named. None of the quartz mines at that time 
were giants ready at the asking to bestow fortunes; 
on the contrary, they were always requiring enor- 
mous outlays for sinking shafts, running cross-cuts, 
timber, wood, and machinery — all making quartz 
mining a precarious employment. The Wolverine 
Avas among the first to fail. The Eureka was divided 
into about sixty shares, most of the holders being 
working men. The Badger was equipped with 
hoisting works and a mill on the creek below the 
town. The quartz was hauled on wagons to the 
mill. Whether because the rock was inferior or 
unskillfully handled, it hardly ever paid expenses, 
oftener less than more, to such an extent that 
the mine, though a promising one, had promised so 
much that its credit was utterly destroyed. Ninety 
thousand dollars or more hung over it, not like the 
sword of Damocles, suspended by a single hair, but 
due for wood, steel, provisions, and labor, besides 
borrowed money. Many times the proprietor was 
tempted to throw up the works and turn them over to 
the creditors; but they as often told him to go on; 
that he could make it pay if any one could. Often 
on a Sunday morning, when the laborers came for 
their pay, a dollar or two for tobacco money was all 
that could be spared. On one occasion, the propri- 
etor was seen carrying wood on his back from the 
side-hill to keep the engine running. A Mr. Norton 
furnished wood on long time, and relieved that 
source of solicitude. Four or five years of such 
struggling had broken down, one after another, the 
most of those who had commenced quartz mining in 
1851. In 1857 the struggle still -continued. There 
was a change impending. The pay chimney was 
struck, and now the double eagles, instead of scant 
half-dollars, w 7 ere paid to the men. The pay-streak 
was likely to run into the Eureka gi-ound, and the 
owner quietly commenced buying up shares of that 



QUARTZ MINING. 



151 



company's stock. Five hundred dollars a share, 
considering the mill which they had erected 
at an estimated expense of thirty thousand dollars, 
just the amount at which the shares were rated, was 
not too much. It was soon known that a majority 
of the stock had passed into his hands, and the bal- 
ance hastened to part with their stock, selling as low 
as four hundred dollars per share; though assured 
that no freezing out was intended, the shares all 
passed into Mr. Hay ward's control. It now became 
known that it had been placed on a permanent, pay- 
ing basis, yielding from twentj'-eight thousand to 
sixty-five thousand dollars per month. 

GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE HAYWARD MINE. 

As this was not only the best mine in the range, 
but the deepest, the explorations having reached the 
depth of two thousand two hundred and fifty 
feet, a particular description of its locality, wall 
rocks, and surface indications, will be interesting, as 
throwing light on the nature of quartz veins in gen- 
eral. Although there were large masses of rock in 
the vein, and covering the ground in the vicinity of 
this mine, the ravine below was only moderately 
rich. The surface rock that was within a few hundred 
feet of the top, paid from eight to twelve dollars a 
ton only. In the early days of quartz mining, when 
the means of closely saving the gold had not been 
discovered, this would hardly pay; though after the 
mine passed into other hands, the same rock, by 
means of improved machinery, being taken out and 
reduced for two dollars and seventy-five cents per 
ton, according to the report of the superintendent, 
J. C. Faul, paid one hundred and fifty thousand dol- 
lars in dividends. The wall rocks of the range, which 
here was only two or three hundred feet wide, were 
firm, metamorphic slate, called by the miners, gran- 
ite, a term which often misleads persons seeking 
information. It scarcely ever has any of the appear- 
ance of true granite, and in most instances is simi- 
lar in texture to the great reef of rock lying west 
of the quartz belt, or range of mining towns, 
which has already been spoken of as one of the 
axes of elevation, and the western boundary of the 
ancient valley. This wall rock, on the east side of 
the vein, went down, solid and firm, about one thou- 
sand seven hundred and fifty feet, after which it was 
much broken up, the quartz paying to this depth. 
There were two principal veins; perhaps deposits 
would be a better term, as but one of the deposits 
was in the shape of a vein, the other being called a 
boulder vein, from its being in detached masses, like 
boulders, through occupying a regular rift or fissure 
in the slate. The continuous vein was next to the 
hanging or eastern wall, and both veins had a pitch 
or slope to the east of about twenty feet to the hun- 
dred, so that a perpendicular shaft, to reach the vein 
at a depth of two thousand feet, must be started 
about lour hundred feet east of the croppi ngs. it 
may be as well to mention here that experienced 
miners never expect to find the true course of a vein 



until they have sunk from four to eight hundred 
feet on it. An ore-bearing vein or fissure, if an 
extensive one, is always more or less open, admit- 
ting water. A few calculations as to the power of 
displacement in a seam containing water may be 
interesting. " Water presses in proportion to its 
perpendicular height." At a depth of thirty-three 
feet the lateral pressure is two thousand one hun- 
dred and sixty pounds to the square foot, at sixty-six 
twice that, at one hundred three times, and so on as 
far as the water reaches, which is usually as far as 
any ore is found. Let us now estimate the thrust 
or lateral pressure on a hill one thousand feet high, 
and exposed to the action of the displacing force 
along a distance of another thousand feet, though 
hills containing ore are not often elevated above the 
surrounding country more than a few hundred feet; 
but the power of displacement acts in other instances 
as well as in mineral veins, as a powerful agent in 
the formation of valleys, and more especially, as we 
shall hereafter see, in the formation of the mineral 
veins themselves. Making the pressure at thirty- 
three feet a ton, (in round numbers, for the sake of 
convenience,) at one hundred feet it is three tons; at 
five hundred feet, fifteen tons, which will be the 
average of the one thousand feet in depth, or fifteen 
thousand tons for the column, one foot later- 
ally, and one thousand times that for the whole 
thrust of the little seam of water of, say, an eighth 
of an inch in thickness, making fifteen millions of 
tons. What wonder then that we find the surfaces of 
quartz veins thrown hundreds of feet out of line, or 
in some instances doubled quite over. If those per- 
sons who are so ready to invoke the agencies of 
earthquakes for every displacement of rocks and 
mineral veins, would study the effect of agencies, 
silent and slow, yet irresistible as fate, now at 
work, they would not be obliged to conceive of 
mountains being tossed from place to place like foot- 
balls. 

Both veins had a dip to the north, the boulder 
vein soon leaving the other, which only dipped 
slightly, so that it passed into the Eureka ground 
some hundred feet below. At a depth of six hun- 
dred feet, the hanging-wall or eastern vein pinched 
nearly out. As the pay was mostly in this vein, 
the other paying only in spots, the mine for awhile 
appeared to have been worked out; but the same 
pluck which had developed it came in play, and the 
gouge, or soft clay in the fissure, was followed down 
two hundred feet further, and the vein opened better 
than ever. A vein of sulphurets, one inch in thick- 
ness, ran diagonally across the main lode, that was 
half gold. Immense quantities were surreptitiously 
taken by the workmen, who were compelled to strip 
themselves on coming out of the shaft, step across 
the room, put on other clothes, leaving the mining 
suit to be examined by the inspector, a person 
appointed for the purpose. All sorts of devices 
were employed to conceal the gold. One miner 



].->•_> 



IIISTOKY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



threw away b pair of old boots. The inspector 
examined them, and found several ounces of speci 
mens, which the owner expected to get after eight- 
fall should enable him to get the boots anobs< 
Borne concealed specimens in their hair; and even 
the antta was Used for thai purpose. A small quartz 
mill was sot up in an abandoned tunnel, for reducing 
rich rock. Notwithstanding all possible vigilance 
on the pari of the superintendents, a greal Heal was 

stolen. A kind of demoralization existed among 

many of the miners, especially those of foreign birth) 
which caused such abstractions to be considered as 
commendable, sharp tricks rather than ciimes. 

A greal number of persons have lost their lives 
here, some by carelessness, and some by unavoidable 
accidents. Any one may sec that familiarity with 
danger will breed contempt for it, by watching the 
miners going up or down the shaft. Three or four 
Will get into the tub, and as many more on the out- 
side, and go up or down as though they were riding 
along a smooth road instead of being suspended, 
where a fall would precipitate them a thousand feet, 
against timbers and rocks. An indiscreet movement 
of the head, when the bucket is in rapid motion, 
has resulted in shaving a man's head half away. 
Sometimes incorrect signals are made with the bell 
wire, and a bucket is raised when it should be low- 
ered; at other times, a trap along a level will be 
left open, and a man walking along with a dim 
light will fall a hundred or two feet, to be killed or 
maimed for life. Sometimes a ladder will give 
away, and a man will fall from the carelessness or 
awkwardness of the carpenter who put up the lad- 
ders. Some sixty men had been lost in the first 
twenty years of its working. 

Although the mine was called the Hayward mine, 
several other men have had interests at different 
times. When the mine was in debt, partial inter- 
ests were disposed of to obtain necessary means to 
work it. 

O. L. Chamberlain, Dan Fiddler, Charles McNe- 
mair, and A. H. Rose, have been at times part 
owners. The hitter's interest was a result of a piece 
of questionable enterprise, not, however, unusual 
with that smart operator in quartz mining. In 1864 
or 1865 a number of persons were willing to take the 
usually unprofitable position of Public Administrator. 
After the election it was learned that not only a share 
in the rich Hayward mine, but a hundred thousand 
dollars in dividends, were the unclaimed assets of 
Charles MaNemair, who went to Frazer river in 1S57. 
before the Hayward mine had become a paying insti- 
tution, and was supposed to be lost. In due course 
of time Mr. Tynan, the Public Administrator, filed 
a petition for letters of administration, showing at 
the same time probable proof of the death of McNe- 
mair, who was last seen going up the river in a boat, 
which was reported to have foundered with all hands 
on board. A stay of proceedings was obtained by 
the introduction of an affidavit to the effect that 



McNemair had been seen in British Columbia subse- 
quently to the alleged loss of the boat, and conse- 
quently tnigbl he -till living. It is said that this 
affidavit was procured by A. II. Rose, to delay events 
until he could purchase the interests of the different 
heirs of the McNemair estate. At. all events, he soon 
appeared as claimant, he having sent a trusty agent 
to Illinois, the former home of McNemair. who had 
purchased the whole estate, a share in the mine, as 
well as the accumulated dividends, for about three 
thousand dollars, a mere bagatelle compared to its 
real value. What representations were made to 
effect this transaction is not known; hutsevcral visits 
were made to California by lawyers in the interests 
of the heirs, and it was some years before the matter 
was hushed up. It is needless to say that no more 
information of the missing man was received after 
the purchase of the estate by Rose. 

After the mine had been successfully worked for 
about fifteen years, it was sold to a joint-stock com- 
pany for six hundred thousand dollars, and was listed 
on the mining market at the Stock Exchange as the 
( lonsolidated Amador. The mine was too well known 
to be used as a bait for the public, and was not called 
on the board a great while. The mine perhaps paid 
for itself but did not equal the expectation of the 
stockholders. It was twice burned out, the immense 
amount of timber in the mine and the gVeat cham- 
bering, making it an impossibility to stay a confla- 
gration after it had once got fairly started. 

The first of these fires occurred in April, 1870. It 
was supposed that it originated from a lighted candle 
being left on a timber in the north shaft. The men 
below were hoisted out of the other shafts and the 
mine closed up. Some days after an examination 
was made; a number of men going down the shaft 
were rescued with the utmost difficulty on account 
of the noxious gasses engendered by the fire. As 
the lower levels were still burning, the shafts were 
covered up and the hoisting works removed. The 
mine was repaired at an enormous expense, as it was 
supposed that the rock would continue at an infinite 
depth, but though the sump, or advanced shaft, was 
carried down to two thousand two hundred and fifty 
feet, no ore body below the seventeen-hundred-foot 
level was worked. At that point the great lode had 
shrunken from forty to less than six feet in width, 
with a run from north to south of thirty feet, instead 
of four hundred and fifty, and very moderate in pay 
at that. The lower sinking failed to discover any 
new development of the vein ; in fact, the fissure was 
all that was found, and when the last great fire 
occurred, it was deemed best to abandon the localitj^ 
and open the mine in a new place, some six hundred 
feet towards the north, on the ground near the old 
Wolverine claim, which had been many years before 
consolidated with the Badger and Eureka. The rock 
now being taken out at a depth of four hundred and 
fifty feet, is not of the kind formerly found in the 
south end of the claim, but perhaps will pay for 



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FRUIT RANCH/ RESIDENCE OF JOHN NORTHUP. 

JULlEtl DISTRICT. AMADOR COUNTY. CAL. 



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RANCH ^ RESIDENCE OFAA.VANSANDT. 

Tf N££ AMADOR COUNTY, CAL. 



iTirroi » keys 



QUARTZ MINING. 



153 



crushing. The superintendent does not expect to 
find good rock until the walls become well defined. 

THE RAILROAD MINE 

Is the name given to a vein of quartz some two or 
three hundred feet east of the Wolverine. It was 
worked down four or five hundred feet, and, though 
some rich rock was found (a thousand dollars once 
being taken out of a candle-box full of rock), the vein 
was neither rich nor permanent, and the work was 
suspended. The wall rocks were hard, with little 
gouge, a surface opening only being indicated. 

THE WILDMAN MINE 

Was on the north side of the creek. Some good 
rock was taken out of this ground, but, like the 
majority of quartz veins, has not made its owners rich. 
As this vein is located out of range with the other 
mines, many experienced miners believe that proper 
cross-cutting towards the west will be likely to strike 
a paying chimney. 

THE MAHONEY. 

This ground was formerly owned by Hayward, 
who thought he had found a thousand dollars when 
he sold it to the Mahoney brothers for that sum. 
Though not equal to the Consolidated Amador, it 
made very handsome dividends for a good many 
years. The vein, forty feet wide or more, was 
worked down nearly eight hundred feet when work 
was suspended on account of the death of the last of 
the four Mahoney brothers, by consumption, in the 
course of a few years. A few years since it fell into 
the hands of Senator Stewart of Nevada. Some 
sinking was done by James Morgan of the Oneida 
Mining Company, nothing new being developed. 
The company erected a mill near the hoisting works, 
the rock formerly having been crushed by a water- 
mill on the creek some distance away. At a depth 
of eight hundred and fifty feet the vein is not well 
defined, the walls being much broken. The rock is 
supposed to pay only moderately. Those who saw 
this place in an early day would be ready to say 
that the quartz veins here made a sharp turn to the 
east, into what is called Tucker hill. This hill is 
netted with quartz veins sometimes in slate and often 
in the hard hanging-wall of the main range. Some 
small fortunes have been made out of the occasion- 
ally rich veins, which, though promising on the top, 
soon pinch out. Nearly all the surface has a little 
gold in it, and the gulches in the vicinity were the 
best around Sutter creek. 

The true direction of the main lode may be seen 
by the cavity made by the falling in of the upper 
portion of the mine worked twenty years ago. 

THE UNION OR LINCOLN, 

Or, as it is sometimes called, the Stanford mine, was 
the first discovery in Sutter creek. E. B. Mclntyre, 
Samuel Hanford, Levi Hanford, B. C. Downs, N. 
Drew, and others of Amador, formed a company in 
20 



1851 to hunt a quartz mine. They first tried Quartz 
mountain near Lower Rancheria. This not proving 
satisfactory , they divided into smaller parties and tried 
other places. One of the parties came on the south 
side of the ridge, Sutter creek then having about a 
dozen inhabitants. Much money had, even then, 
been expended in sinking on barren veins, and the 
company had made it a condition that no shaft 
should be commenced until gold was found in the 
ledge or vein in place. Floating rock with gold in 
it was found on the flat west of the present Mahoney 
and Union locations. Some narrow veins were found 
on the hill-side near the sulphuret works, but these 
not proving satisfactory they ran an open cut a few 
feet in depth and struck the main lode, in which they 
found a speck of gold. As this satisfied the condi- 
tions of the incorporation, a shaft was commenced 
and good rock soon after discovered, from which, 
with modern machinery, fifty or seventy-five dol- 
lars to the ton could be extracted. 

They found a company of men working quartz on 
the south side of the Tucker hill, who set up a claim 
to the discovery they had made. To quiet all dis- 
putes, the south side company, consisting of Malva- 
ney, Sherwood, Armstrong, and others, were taken 
in, making the company which was thereafter called 
the " Union," numbering about sixteen men, E. B. 
Mclntyre being president, and N. Drew, secretary. 
A water-mill was builfc, near the present residence of 
B. C. Downs, with five stamps. Tbis was the first mill 
in Sutter Creek, the Hayward mill being next. 
David Armstrong, who afterwards built a saw-mill 
near Pino Grove, was the mill-wright. The power 
was a breast-wheel, with a wooden shaft and wooden 
cams, the latter being set into the shaft in mortises 
and curved at the end to match the tappits, which 
were also of wood, set into mortises in the square 
wooden stems of the stamps. Armstrong was a 
good mechanic, and the work was well done, though 
much power was lost in the unavoidable friction of 
the wooden machinery. It worked as well as could be 
expected, and something over expenses was made 
out of the quartz. The gold was saved on blankets 
laid along the sluices, which were washed every half- 
hour. Quicksilver was tried, but it would not unite 
with the gold. An amalgamator from the Nashville 
mine, on the Cosumnes, was hired to superintend 
the sluices. He discovered that the quicksilver was 
adulterated with lead; after this was gotten rid of 
there was no difficulty in amalgamation. 

In 1852 the mine and mill were leased to a com- 
pany that made five thousand dollars to each partner. 
After the expiration of the lease, the Union company 
again worked it, Frank Tibbetts being superintend- 
ent. It was a common report that two million 
dollars were taken out of the mine during the next 
eight years, but the company became bankrupt, and 
in October, 1859, the mine fell into the hands of 
Leland Stanford, who made B. C. Downs superin- 
tendent. Under his management the mine became 



L54 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



highly remunerative. It was now oalled the •• Lin- 
coln," and was worked l>y D0WD8 and Stanford until 
1st::, wlicn it passed into the hands of Borne foreign 
capitalists, who put up a mill on t lie soutli side of the 
hill, and made other inprovements. At present the 
mine is no1 worked, the shaft and pumping machin- 
ery being used to drain the Mahoney mine. In this 
mine the paying vein was next to the hanging-wall, 
whi(d). as in the Mahoney, the adjoining mine, was 
the hard, metamorphie slate, called " blue granite " 
by the miners. A cross cut into it indicated no 
change or prospect of a parallel vein. The gouge 
was on the foot-wall, which at a depth of rive or six 
hundred feet, gradually changed to a quartzose char- 
acter. The pitch of the vein was sixty-seven to 
seventy degrees from horizontal, and was from two 
to twenty feet thick. It will be seen that this cluster 
of mines was practically exhausted at a depth of 
less than one. thousand feet, though deep sinking- 
may, as in the Hayward mine, reveal a stronger 
vein than the surface one; the well-defined foot and 
hanging-walls favoring the presumption. 

The most startling and serious accident that ever 
occurred in the mines in this county, happened 
here, in 1875. The following account taken from 
the Independent, a daily paper published at Sutter 
Creek at the time, will be read with interest: — 

"Now that the dead and alive are all out of the 
mine and proper^ cared for, we shall attempt to 
give a correct version of the affair. On Friday 
morning, at seven o'clock, the day shift were let 
down, consisting of fifteen men, part of whom went 
on the threc-hundred-foot, and part on the five-hun- 
dred-foot level. Those on the first were working 
in the stope, and three running the tunnel toward 
the old south shaft, which had been deserted for 
upwards of eight years, and was filled with stagnant 
water and foul air. Hardly had the drifters worked 
an hour when they broke through, and, at first, a 
small volume of water rushed in and drove them 
out. The alarm was immediately given, and fore- 
man Horn, with another man, went down. They 
found William Wadge and Antonio Robles almost 
dead from suffocation, and took them to the top. 
Wadge soon recovered and was taken home, while 
Robles suffered terribly for some hours, when he 
was removed, but died during the night. The most 
intense excitement now prevailed, and Superintendent 
Stewart, Foreman Horn, and others, commenced the 
work of getting to the remaining men below. The 
foul air had become so strong that no light would 
burn within thirty feet of the three-hundred-foot 
level. The workmen exerted every nerve to extri- 
cate the now supposed dead men. Finding that all 
chances were lost to pass the first level, the water 
buckets were put to use, and at night they had 
cleared the water out to within a few feet of the 
five- hundred-foot level, yet they could not descend. 
All night the work went on, and by morning four 
of the unfortunate men were found. Saturday after- 
noon the shaft was so cleared of the bad air, by the 
aid of the air pumps, that Mr. Horn managed to 
reach the top of the lower level. 

"About eight o'clock, while the water bucket was 
down, the signal rope was pulled and the bell rung, 
which caused great excitement above. When the 



buoket arrived at the top, there sat upon it Joseph 
Bath, and alive. He sang out to the astonished 
crowd, 'I am all right, there are three more alive 
in the lower level.' Header, imagine the scene. We 
cannot give it in words. The bucket was lowered, 
and up came the three other men. It is impossible 
for us to give a description of the feelings of the 
people at this time. Mr. Bath has given us a full 
account of the whole affair — at least what happened 
underground— and in all history nothing has ever 
come to our notice that can in the slightest compare 
with this. None of the men about the mine have 
a word of fault to find with the management from 
first to last. We hear nothing but praise to Super- 
intendent Stewart and Foreman Horn for their untir- 
ing perseverance. For over two days and nights 
Mr. Horn never left his post, and not till the last 
man was found and taken out did the brave man 
have any rest. 

" We here give the names of the dead and living 
in full. Dead — Patrick Frazier, leaves a wife and 
four children, Ireland; John Collier, wife and five 
children, Ireland; Dennis Lynch, Ireland, wife and 
two children; William Coombs, England, wife and 
two children; VV. H. Rule, England, single; Gr. B. 
Bobbino and Bartolomeo G-azzolo, single, Italy; 
Antonio Robles, Mexico, single; Nicolas Balulich, 
Austria, wife and four children. Saved — Jos. Bath, 
wife and four children, England; Bart. Curotto, 
wife and four children, Italy; Stefano Poclepovich, 
wife and six children, Italy; William Wadge, wife 
and several children, England; John O'Neil, Ireland. 
Mr. Frazier had an insurance of one thousand dol- 
lars, and Mr. Collier a policy of two thousand dol- 
lars in the Phoenix Mutual of Hartford. 

" Seven were buried on Sunday, and two on Mon- 
day. Never before has so much sadness and sorrow 
been mixed with so much joy and happiness as has 
been the case within the past three days." 

The accident was evidently owing to a faulty 
survey, which failed to indicate the proximity of 
the old works. It is said that some of the victims 
had presentiments of the danger, and bid their 
families good-bye on leaving home the morning of 
the accident. The feelings of the parties inclosed 
in the drift must have been terrible. It was expected 
that all were dead, but the drift being ascending, 
the chamber of air prevented the water from filling 
it. Those who attempted to swim out through the 
submerged end of the level were lost. Can imagina- 
tion conceive a more terrible situation ? 

THE MECHANICS' MINE 

Was a vein a mile east of the Mother Lode in the 
vicinity of Sutter creek. The rock was good-look- 
ing, and for a time the mine was considered promising, 
but it proved a losing concern, and is not worked 
at present. 

THE HERBERTVILLE MINE 

Is some mile or more north of the Sutter creek 
cluster, the intervening ground not having any 
strong ci-oppings indicating a large lode, though 
several shafts have been sunk on the thin veins 
which appear at the surface. The Herbertville is 
singular in having the foot-wall of the hard meta- 
morphie slate. The direction of this vein hai'dly 
conforms to the general trend of the Mother Lode; 



QUARTZ MINING. 



155 



it is also somewhat out of range, being to the east of 
the other mines; from these circumstances it is con- 
sidered, by many experienced miners, as an acci- 
dental deposit, not occupying a true fissure. It was 
first worked in 1854, by Jones & Davis. The vein 
was twenty feet wide in places, and had & run of 
nearly three hundred feet, pinching out at the depth 
of six hundred feet. The rock was very ^good, fre- 
quently paying forty dollars a ton. It was among 
the best mines twenty years ago, but is not worked 
at present. If this was an accidental vein, it was a 
happy accident — for the owners at least. A cross- 
cut to the west might discover the true vein. A 
boulder, weighing several tons and quite rich in gold, 
was found, some years since, in a situation which 
indicated it as a float from a vein farther west. E. 
B. Mclntyre of Sutter Creek is the owner of this 
chance for a mine. 

SPRING HILL. 

Though promising at the beginning, these mines 
had ruined nearly all who had been connected with 
them. " Quartz-mine" debts were harder to collect 
than saw-mill debts, which is saying a great deal. 
Sharp practice was often necessary to get pay for 
hay, grain or timber furnished the mines. In 1857, 
Stone, of the Buena Vista ranch, sold the Spring Hill 
Company a quantity of hay, but when he called for 
his money he was put off on various pretexts. He 
was as shrewd as they and had a sheriff watch the 
mill, to attach the amalgam when it was taken up. 
It was hidden in the lower works out of his way. 
The shei'iff went down after it. The mining company 
quit pumping and let the shaft fill up with water> 
not soon enough, however, to save their amalgam. 
Stone got his pay. It is not intended to convey the 
idea that quartz mining is necessarily demoralizing, 
more than any other business which happens to be 
unprofitable. The mill and mine (Spring Hill) was 

owned by P. M. Eandal, B„ F. Pendleton, and 

Palmer until 1858, when they finally broke up, the 
creditors taking the property and running it with 
success, paying off the debts, after which, about 
1861, it fell into the hands of Isaac Perkins. He 
ran it for four years at a loss; then the Hoopers, 
father and son, tried it with no better success. In 
1867, work was suspended until it was consolidated 
with the Keystone Company's property. 

THE KEYSTONE. 

This mine has the most eventful history of any 
of the Amador mines. Though never called on 
the stock-boards, it has almost a world-wide reputa- 
tion. It was here that quartz mining in this county 
commenced, and here were made the first failures as 
well as successes. In the history of the beginning of 
quartz mining, we left the Spring Hill and Granite 
State making their first efforts in the work. We 
have seen that the Spring Hill was located by the 
minister company, consisting of Davidson, Herbert, 
Glover, and Cool. The Granite State was located by 



Wheeler; the Walnut Hill, named after Beecher's 
famous seminary near Cincinnati, by two brothers 
named Holt. The mill was in the house now used by 
the Keystone company, as an office and assaying 
room. After the mill and mine had been run for a 
while at a loss, the two brothers proposed to run it 
themselves for what they could make out of it. They 
found a bonanza, making twenty thousand dollars in 
a short time. 

The Granite State was located near the present 
Keystone mill; the Spring Hill towards the creek, 
these mines had, at first, been worked with arastras 
which made selected rock yield one hundred dollars 
per ton, but the process was slow and was abandoned, 
though an attempt was made to run the arastras by 
water-power, which also was a failure. These three 
mines constitute the property now known as the 
Keystone. 

CONSOLIDATION OF 

The Granite State and Walnut Hill. About 1857 
these two mines had some share-holders in common, 
one of whom, Samuel Mannon,made a proposition that 
they should consolidate, which was adopted, the new 
company being called the Keystone; but the move 
did not relieve the indebtedness which was over- 
whelming, everything being attached for much more 
than it was worth. A mortgage on it was foreclosed, 
but an older judgment, in the hands of A. H. Kose 
and Phil. Crusart, took the mine, Eose eventually 
becoming sole owner. It was not supposed to be a 
paying property, though it was worked more or less, 
the mill being used for custom work as well as for 
the mine. Once during the time it was sold to Frank 
Tibbetts, who run it at a serious loss, and the prop- 
erty reverted to Eose. In 1869 it was sold to J. M. 
McDonald, Michael Eeese and others, of San Fran- 
cisco, for one hundred and four thousand dollars, 
which was thought by outsiders to be an enormous 
price. It had previously been offered for fifteen 
thousand dollars, but the rich discoveries then being 
made along the range in the vicinity of the Seaton 
mine shot quartz up with alarming rapidity. It 
is currently reported also, that the Mint receipts for 
custom work, were used to enhance the apparent 
value of the mine. At all events the first workings 
were a total failure. The old proprietor was heard 
to say that that no child born would live to see the 
mine pay for itself!! This may all be legitimate 
among stock-dealers. 

DISCOVERY OP THE BONANZA. 

Old miners had suspected another vein to the east 
in what was considered the hanging-wall, though 
this opinion was not shared by the former proprie- 
tors. Occasionally a blast in the hanging-wall 
would show stringers of quartz which indicated 
another deposit. A cross-cut was started, but a 
beginning had hardly been made when rich quartz 
was uncovered. Quartz in the hanging-wall was a 
novelty, but there it was sparkling with gold. The 



156 



HISTORY OF AMADOU COI'NTY. CALIFORNIA. 



first month's crushing paid forty thousand < 1 < > lj . 

and the next — and ever since the same. By select- 
ing the lu-sl rock it could be made to pay a million 
a year for an indefinite time, but all rock that will 
pay two dollars, which is considered about the cost 
of extracting and crushing, is worked. The vein is 
a boulder vein, that is, lying in bunches, kidney- 
shaped, and varying in size from a few tons to forty 
thousand tons. The bunches are connected by 
stringers. It will be recollected that the boulder vein 
in the II ay ward mine was next the foot-wall, and 
was not uniformly rich. There seems to be no rule 
governing in such deposits. The pitch of the mine 
is about forty-five degrees. The following figures 
from the actual survey will give an idea of pitch. 

Distances. On the slope. 
1st Level 475 ft. 



2d 
3d 
4th 
5th 
6 th 



. 556 
681 
812 
950 

1080 



Horizontal. 


Vertical. 


294.77 ft. 


394.23 ft. 


358.63 " 


424.88 " 


439.25 " 


520.40 " 


523.75 " 


620.51 " 


612.76 « 


725.96 " 


696.61 " 


825.30 " 



The run north and south is seven hundred and 
sixty-five feet between the pinches. The best de- 
posits are found on the flat portion of the foot- wall, 
these places acting like a riffle in retaining the 
quartz. Within the last two years new and sub- 
stantial works have been erected. From the hoisting 
works to the mill, everything is arranged for con- 
venience. The ore falls into substantial ore houses, 
that will hold a month's crushing, so that a repair of 
the shaft or mine will cause no delay of work. 

One hundred and thirty men find constant em- 
ployment here. The rates of labor have not varied 
much for twenty years, and are 

For Under-ground Miners, per day, 

Laborers above ground, " " ....■'"' 

Blacksmiths " " 

Carpenters " " 

Engineers " " 



.$3 00 
. 2 50 
. 3 50 
. 4 00 
. 3 00 



The lumber used in one year is enormous: — 

5,000 round timbers'with sawed lumber $26,000 00 

25,000 pieces of lagging, @ $95 00 per M 2,375 00 

2,000 cords of wood @ $6 00 per cord 12,000 00 

It will be seen that nearly two hundred thousand 
dollars is distributed annually by this mine in the 
matter of expenses. 



The Assessor furnishes the following report of the 
proceeds for 187!). which may approximate the facts: 

Amount of rock crushed, in tons 39,000 

Total yield $451,000 00 

Expenses claimed by mine 273,000 00 

allowed by Assessor 1 95,000 00 

BIG GRAB. 

The history of these mines would be incomplete 
without Tin account of the daring attempt, under 
cover of an agricultural claim, to obtain possession 
of all these mines. In August, 1869, that portion of 
the county was surveyed and scctionized by J. 
G. Mather, and the plot of the section and mines, 
and other improvements thereon, reported to the 
general office at San Francisco. 



A. If. Eose had a vineyard and farm east of the 
town of Amador; so it was supposed that it would be 
on the east half-section, section thirty-six. As sec- 
tions sixteen and thirty-six in each township had 
been donated to the State for school purposes, no 
alarm was raised or objections interposed when a 
patent for the east half-section was applied for, and 
obtained from the State; though the fact that Henry 
Casey, instead of A. H. Eose, the actual owner of 
the vineyard, applied for and obtained the deed to 
the land, Eose acting as his business agent, would 
naturally cause inquiry and suspicion of fraud. 

The plot, as subsequently corrected, and now on 
file in the State Surveyor General's office at San 
Francisco, is as follows: — 





w w 








3 = 








S a t> 








a-p x g 








— 2. ^ a. 








<£. " 2? '' 








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a £ > £ 








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QP 


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ob 


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31 



Section 36, T. 7 N., R. 10 E. 



T. 7N.,R.11E 








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kt i 


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5 



CO 



QUARTZ MINING. 



157 



When the plot had been consummated Henry Casey 
disappeared, and A. H. Eose appeared, armed with 
a deed from the State, as the claimant for millions 
worth of property. It is not necessary to follow the 
matter through the courts. It is sufficient to say 
that it was finally carried up to the Secretary of the 
Interior. The following, from the Washington cor- 
respondent of the Sacramento Union, will give a clear 
idea of the dangers the Amadorians have surmounted : 

" Washington, April 9, 1873. 
" Extraordinary professional and lobby interests 
are being organized and concentrated here by A. 
H. Eose, to bear upon the Secretary of the Interior 
in the important case of the Keystone Consolidated 
Mining Company, the Original Amador Mining Com- 
pany, Bunker Hill Quartz Company, and the town 
site of Amador, against the State of California. 
The purpose is to secure a reversal of the decision of 
the General Land Office, whereby to turn over to 
Eose and his associates property worth millions of 
dollars, for which the nominal sum of four hundred 
dollars was partly paid by Henry Casey, the alleged 
grantee from the State. The case involves extraor- 
dinary features, apparent frauds, as well as a princi- 
ple of the utmost importance to thousands of mine- 
owners and mines in controversy, situated on the 
Mother Lode of California, which have been worked 
since 1850. Eose sold, for one hundred and thirty 
thousand dollars, the Keystone mine, and he now 
seeks to recover it in the name of Casey. The town 
of Amador was founded in 1850, its site, and all 
the mines situated uj>on the east half-section of sec- 
tion thirty-six, township seven north, range ten 
east, Mt. Diablo meridian. In 1870 certain parties 
procured a United States survey of that township, 
and, it is alleged, induced the Deputy Surveyor, by 
fraudulent field notes, to represent the mines and 
town as located upon the west half of the section. 
This was to deceive occupants, so as to induce 
them to apply for the wrong tract, while the specu- 
lators could, without opposition, purchase from the 
State for four hundred dollars, and receive a patent 
for the tract on which these properties were actually 
located. The fraud was discovered and exposed by 
abundant proofs, demonstrating unquestionably the 
surveyor's infidelity, in returning as agricultural 
land the richest half-section of mineral land ever dis- 
covered. The patent not having been issued, thebona 
fide mining claimants and town authorities immedi- 
ately applied to the Land Department for patents 
under the mineral and town site laws, but the 
would-be purchasers from the State then boldly 
claimed that the School Land Act of March 3, 1853, 
was a grant en presente of both surveyed and unsur- 
veyed, and both mineral and agricultural, lands com- 
prised in the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections of 
every township, and consequently that the mineral 
lands in controversy situated in the thirty-sixth sec- 
tion, passed to the State immediately on the passage 
of the Act of 1853. To this it is replied that min- 
eral lands were excluded from the grants to the 
State; that the State title did not vest in any lands 
until surveyed, there being prior thereto no sections 
sixteen and thirty-six; the Act of 1853 provided that as 
to mineral lands only township lines should be run, 
which provision was not repealed until July 9, 187(1; 
that it was competent for Congress, before vested 
rights attached, to make a different appropriation of 
the lands; that before the survey Congress did, by 
the Act of July 26, 1866, make a different appro- 



priation of the mineral lands; that if this were not 
so, yet the particular tract in controversy was 
expressly excepted from the State grant by the 
seventh section of the Act of 1853, by reason of its 
settlement and the erection of dwelling-houses 
thereon prior to the survey. The local land officers 
and the Commission-General of the Land Office 
decided against the pretentions of the private claim- 
ants who use the State's_nanne, and the case is now 
pending on appeal before the Secretary of the In- 
terior. The danger grows out of the fact that the 
Supreme Court of the State of California, in the case 
of Sherman against Buck, decided that the Act of 
1853 did vest title to all sixteenth and thirty-sixth 
sections in the State prior to the survey. And 
although it is believed the court will grant a rehear 
ing and reverse that decision, its action, neverthe- 
less, lends color of support to the attempt now making 
to obtain possession of the Amador mines and estab- 
lishes a principle fraught with immense danger to 
thousands of other interests. Eose is here person- 
ally pressing the case, in addition to Wm. H. Patter- 
son and other well-known California lawyers and 
lobbyists to assist in its prosecution. It is probable 
dilatory tactics will be employed to postpone the decis- 
ion of this tainted claim until the Benjamin Snelling 
case from the Marysville district can be presented to 
the Secretary for a decision of the naked question of 
the right of the State to the sixteenth and thirty- 
sixth sections of mineral lands; so that if the. right of 
the State is affirmed, it will be comparatively easy to 
find a pretext for deciding Eose's case in his favor. 
The question has a vital importance to all mineral 
occupants on the sixteenth and thirty -sixth sections. 
If the mineral claimants in either the Keystone or 
Snelling cases are defeated, then all mines upon simi- 
larly numbered subdivisions, or which upon future 
survey may prove to be so numbered, are at the 
mercy of the first applicant to purchase from the 
State at one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre. It 
is represented here that the parties who are initiated 
in this speculation have already taken the requisite 
steps to file the first applications for all similar sec- 
tions throughout the State. The same dangers 
threaten mineral occupants in every other mineral 
State." 

" Washington, April 28, 1873. 
" The Secretary of the Interior to-day decided the 
very important and much contested cases of the Key- 
stone Mining Company et. al., vs. State of California, 
and of Benjamin Snelling vs. the State of California, 
both of which involved the question whether the 
grant to said State of sections sixteen and thirty 
six for school purposes by the Act of March 3, 1853, 
included said sections when they were on mineral 
lands. The Secretary held, first, that the title to 
said sections sixteen and thirty- six does not vest in 
the State until survey has been made, which brings 
into existence and locates said section, and that said 
mining companies, having appropriated said lands 
under the Act of July 26, 1866, prior to such sm'vey, 
they had the better right. Second, that the seventh 
section of the Act of 1853 excepts from the grant all 
of sections sixteen and thirty-six, on which there 
had been, prior to the survey, a settlement by the 
erection of a dwelling-house or the cultivation of any 
portion of the land, and that the settlement referred 
to was technically known as pre-emption settlement. 
Third, that the grant was not intended to include, 
and docs not include, said sections when they are on 
mineral lands. The decision was given against the 
State in both cases." 



158 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Extraordinary reports are ourrent as to the means 
by which this fraudulent Burvey was accomplished. 
J. G. Mather was not in the field at the time, though 
his name was attached to the plot returned to the 
office. His deputies were Uri Nurse and Marcellus 
Nurse, father and son, the latter doing the work. 
Some say the survey was made by moonlight; others 
that a lantern was used, and some go so far as to 
name the persons who acted as chain and torch 
bearers in these midnight surveys. Young Nurse is 
reported as saying that he made fifteen thousand 
dollars during the season. Mather is made to bear 
the responsibility, and has not since been employed 
by the Government in any work, nor is he likely 
to be. 

The contest was finally terminated November 22, 
1880. 

" In the case Ivanhoe Mining Company us. Key- 
stone Consolidated Company, the Supi'eme Court 
held that in the grant of the sixteenth and thirty- 
sixth sections of the public lands to the State of 
California for school purposes, the title to the mineral 
lands did not pass, for the reason that it was the 
established policy of the Government to withhold the 
mineral lands from sale, and that in this case the 
land in question, having been improved before the 
survey, it was exempt from sale by reason of section 
seven of such law." 

The owners of mines and houses on the famous 
thirty-sixth section may now rest, secure in the 
results of their industry. 



THE ORIGINAL AMADOR 



Sometimes called the Little Amador, is the mine on 
the north side of the creek, which was taken up by 
Thomas Rickey and son in February, 1851. This 
mine was about the first to pay dividends, J. T. 
Burke, still living in Amador, being the superintend- 
dent. In 1854, it passed into the hands of some 
Germans, who ran it until 1857, when it gradually 
failed, work being totally suspended in 1858. In the 
meantime it was sold to Haverstick and Leninger of 
lone, the latter soon becoming the sole owner, the 
mine at this time being valued at only two hundred 
and fifty dollars. J. T. Burke, the first superintend- 
dent, leased the mine from Leninger, giving him half 
the profits. His knowledge of the mine enabled him 
to pay Leninger the sum of eight thousand dollars 
forhis share of the profits. After the expiration of 
the lease, work was suspended until 1862, when J. T. 
Burke bought it for three thousand dollars, one-third 
down, balance in installments. The mine paid for a 
short time, but the rock failing, it went back to 
Leninger, who sold it to John C. Faul for a nominal 
price. The mine was developed under his manage- 
ment, the hoisting works and mill being rebuilt. 
The reputation of the mine was such that it 
was sold to an English company in 1870, for six 
hundred thousand dollars. It is not considered 
a paying property. Work is nearly suspended 
at present. Old miners think that a cross-cut 



to the west might strike a paying vein. The 
present works are near the hanging-wall. A shaft is 
now being sunk on the summit, near the Bunker 
Hill ground. The hoisting is done with a wire cable 
from the old hoisting works nearly a thousand feet 
away. 

THE BUNKER HILL. 

This is one of the mines included in the famous 
thirty-sixth section, a portion of the ground being on 
the doubtful tract. Superintendent Palmer furnishes 
the following information about the mine: It was 
worked in 1851, by Sncdiker, Briggs, and others, mak- 
ing the quartz pay twenty dollars per ton, until the 
works were carried down some depth. It is now four 
hundred and fifty feet deep, with two veins of paying 
rock. The vein next to the hanging-wall is about 
five feet thick. The second one varies from one foot 
to thirty feet in thickness, and is what is called a 
chimney, dipping to the north about forty-five 
degrees. The hanging- wall is well defined and reg- 
ular; the foot-wall being somewhat broken. The 
general pitch is about twenty-eight degrees from a 
perpendicular. The two veins are about sixty feet 
apart, no gold being found in the slates between 
the veins. The sulphurets, constituting about three 
per cent, of the entire rock, are worth about eighty 
dollars per ton, this being about one-tenth of the 
entire product, which at these figures would be about 
twenty-five dollars per ton. The rock shows an 
improvement as a greater depth is reached. 

New hoisting works, mill and chlorination works 
are being erected, and a new shaft is being sunk. 
The mill is to have forty stamps run by water-power, 
and everything is to be substantial and first-class. 
The property is owned by a joint-stock company and 
bids fair to be highly remunerative. 

There are no mines of note for some distance north 
of the Bunker Hill; though several shafts have been 
sunk no valuable lodes were opened. 

THE PENNSYLVANIA. 

This mine was worked by J. W. Pierson, of Oakland. 
Either bad management or other causes have given 
it an unenviable reputation. About a year since, 
fortunately while there was no one in the works, it 
caved in, the whole works collapsing. As the mine 
is being dismantled it is likely that it was not found 
profitable. 

THE GOVER. 

This is an old mine with a varied experience, the 
balance generally being on the wrong side of the 
ledger. It has been worked to a depth of one thou- 
sand and thirty feet; has two veins, the one next the 
hanging-wall about seven feet thick containing the 
pay. The pitch is about forty -five degrees. The 
vein one hundred and thirty feet west is about four 
feet thick and does not contain much gold. A cross- 
cut at seven hundred feet showed no improvement in 
the west vein; at this depth the eastern or hanging- 



QUARTZ MINING. 



159 



wall vein was good, averaging twelve dollars and a 
half per ton, but gradually became poorer as a greater 
depth was reached. The west vein was not tested 
below the seven-hundred-foot level. 

There is no appearance of a chimney in this mine, 
the vein maintaining about the same width on a run 
of seven hundred feet. This is a solitary case, every 
other paying vein being in the shape of a channel, 
chute, or chimney. The hoisting works and water- 
power mill (twenty stamp) are substantial and well 
arranged. The town, called New Chicago, built up 
on the strength of this and the adjoining mines, is 
distressingly quiet. There is a prospect (January 1, 
1881) of the Gover resuming work. 

THE BLACK HILLS. 

This is, to some extent, a repetition of Murphy's 
ridge in the southern part of the county, the veins 
being irregular in location and very much so in their 
value. Immense sums have been taken out by the 
Italians, Austrians and Mexicans, who have been 
working this section for twenty years or more. There 
is a strong hanging-wall but no foot-wall except the 
ordinary slate. Sometimes the quartz shows in large 
chimneys of barren rock a hundred feet thick; at 
other times it ramifies into a thousand seams all 
containing gold. The hills have been sluiced, hydrau- 
liced, coyoted, and tunnelled and worked in every 
way conceivable, and still a great number of men 
make a living for their families, most of whom live 
in the hollows below the mine in a primitive style? 
with goats and children swarming over the hills. 
Efforts have been made to mine this scientifically, 
and long tunnels have been run under or down the 
hanging-wall, which has a slope of about forty-five 
degrees, but the Mexican with his crow-bar and 
bataya still holds the country. The gulches heading 
against this quartz reef were all rich, clear to the 
summit, and it was by following up these that the 
rich threads of quartz interlacing the hill were found. 

THE SEATON MINE. 

Twenty years ago this was a power in the land. It 
was immensely rich in places. It adjoins the Black 
hills on the north. The same rule as at the other 
mines in this cluster holds good, i. e., a strong hanging- 
wall. A mill and hoisting works were erected, and 
the results were such as to make a boom in quartz; a 
million of dollars seeking investment in the county 
in a short time. Some of these ventures have proved 
failures, others exceeded the most sanguine expecta- 
tions of the investors. The mine is owned by an 
English company, and at present is not paying 
dividends, but perseverance may uncover another 
bonanza which will repay them for all their toil. 

THE POTOSI. 

This mine was developed by the Hinksons of 
Drytown, and for many years was a source of profit, 
if not of fortunes. The wall rock on the east is 
here broken off, and for two miles, or until Plymouth 
is reached, the" veins are scattered, spreading in 



some instances to two thousand feet in width. Some 
mills have been erected, and though occasional runs 
have been made which were profitable, the mines 
in general proved a poor investment. Most of the 
veins are held by persons too poor to sink on them, 
the prospects not being good enough to induce cap- 
italists to invest. Some of the veins, with econom- 
ical management, may pay for working at the top, 
and thus pay for testing them. 

QUARTZ MOUNTAIN. 

Although this is not usually considered on the 
range, or Mother Lode, it is most convenient to* 
consider it here. It is an immense body of quartz 
covering twenty acres or more of ground. It seems 
to be a vein, perhaps one hundred feet thick, and 
perhaps a thousand feet long, which, from its original 
inclination, has fallen over to the eastward, as much 
as twenty acres lying nearly flat, forming a promi- 
nent object for miles around. It early attracted the 
attention of quartz miners, and was examined and 
claimed in 1851, at the time of the first quartz 
excitement. The ravines in the immediate vicinity 
were not rich, although a three-hundred-dollar 
lump is said to have been found in the long gulch 
running from it towards the creek. It is rock of a 
peculiar character, being much purer, and more 
compact than the quartz of the Mother Lode. The 
bullion from it is of low value, being worth only ten 
or twelve dollars to the ounce, and very light, forty 
per cent, of it being silver, on which account it is 
hard to save. The quartz, notwithstanding its favor- 
able appearance, has not yet milled above two dol- 
lars per ton, and has proved a losing business to 
all persons engaged in it. The ore has been treated 
in every possible method, but the successful reduc- 
tion of it has not yet been accomplished. The sul- 
phurets are extremely rich, being worth five or six 
hundred dollars a ton. South of the Quartz mountain 
the country has been very rich in coarse gold. Some 
quartz veins crop out on the heads of Deep and 
Indian gulches, which have the same pitch to the 
west that characterizes the Quartz mountain, and 
are probably a part of the same formation. As 
Eancheria creek above the town contains little 
gold, and there is little indication of an ancient 
river bed in this vicinity, it is highly jyrobable that 
Deep and Indian gulches, as well as the flats around, 
were enriched by the system of quartz veins, to 
which Quartz mountain belongs. Mack Oulbert and 
sons are working a .vein on the hill above Indian 
gulch, with fair prospects of making it pay. It is 
likely that a thorough search will discover workable 
veins. Eeference was made to this mountain in the 
article on quartz veins. 

PLYMOUTH GROUP OF MINES. 

It is more convenient to consider them under one 
heading, although there are several incorporations, 
the management being by one set of men. The situa- 
tion of the mines will be understood by a diagram: — 



1G0 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 




Empire < 'i 



Empire Mill Bite. 




Pacific Co., 1200 feet. 



I' >■ ili Mill Site. 




West Oaks Co. 



The Plymouth mine was discovered b} r Green 
Aden in 1853 or 1854. The mine, then called the 
Phoenix, was developed by the Hoopers, and was 
worked by them until 1871, when it passed into the 
hands of Hayward, D. O. Mills and Company. It 
was then worked under the superintendence of 
Charles Green, who developed it into its present 
profitable condition. The mine is singular in the 
fact that it is the site of a glacier erosion, which 
smoothed down every rock, however hard or soft, 
leaving none of the hard reefs so prominent in con- 
nection with other paying quartz veins. A reef of 
rocks across the lower end of the valley, west of 
Puckerville, formed the moraine or terminal line of 
the erosion. 

The ordinary hanging-wall is thought to be some 
six hundred feet to the east of the vein, but as a drift 
has been run only eighty feet in that direction, the 
hanging-wall may be much nearer than is supposed. 
The vein, which averages fifty-two feet in thickness, 
had a moderate slope towards the east, until it 
reached a depth of one thousand feet, when it sud- 
denly became much flatter, having a slope of about 
forty-five degrees. The richest quartz was found on 
this slope, there being a sudden increase in quality 
as well as quantity at this bend. A nother peculiarity 
of the mine is that the pay chimney runs towards 
the south. In this connection it may be well to 
speak of the lawsuit now pending for trespass and 
damage. Though Alvinza Hayward is a principal 
owner in both the Empire and Pacific, other stock- 
holders have interests in but one, and in working- 
down on the chimney, which runs into the Pacific, the 
Empire men received profits which accrued from the 
Pacific ground; hence a suit for two hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars damage. The Empire acknowl- 
edged a demand for eighty thousand dollars, but this 
did not satisfy the Pacifies. To complicate matters 
still more, the Merchants' Exchange Bank of San 
Francisco, through some business conrplications with 
Hayward, stepped in as an intervener, and the suit 
became a triangular duel. An army of lawyers and 
short-hand reporters was brought up from San 
Francisco and quartered around Jackson. Two 
thousand pages of testimony were taken to be used 
in the higher courts, for this was but the beginning 
or skirmishing line in the war. Those who have 
never read the account of the "triangular duel'' in 
Captain Maryatt's " Midshipman Easy," may get an 
idea of this suit by imagining a three-handed game 
of euchre, all parties playing against Hayward, who 
was bound to be euchred in any event, having the 
most of the cost lo pay. An award of seventy-one 
thousand dollars damage was made by Judge Moore, j 



before whom the case was tried, and the matter is 
still running through the courts. 

The chimney at the depth of twelve hundred feet 
has gone five hundred and ninety-two feet to the 
south, at which point hoisting works of the most 
substantial kind are being constructed, the shaft 
being square, with four compartments. The tall 
tower stands over the shaft, a prominent feature in 
the landscape. This elevation is to give room for 
waste rock that often accumulates to an inconven- 
ient degree around mining works. The eighty -stamp 
mill, the largest in the county, is run by water- 
power, the canal being a portion of the company's 
works. A large portion of the timber and lagging 
used, comes down the canal, which receives its sup- 
ply of water from the Cosumnes river. About four 
thousand tons of rock are crushed each month, yield- 
ing forty thousand dollars or upwards. 

Like other large mines, this consumes a great 
amount of material, the yearly demand being — 

3.500 cords of wood valued at $21,000 

7,000 pieces of round timber 21,000 

35,000 pieces of lagging 3,500 

In addition to this, half as much may be reckoned 
for dimension timbers for new works on the surface. 
The names of some one hundred and fifty men are 
on the pay-roll. 

ENTERPRISE. 

North of the Plymouth group the mines have not 
been developed, though there are indications of 
extensive quartz deposits. Indian creek, which 
follows nearly the course of the quartz lodes, was 
quite rich, as were the side gulches putting into it. 
A few years since a town was started on the pros- 
pects of the Enterprise mine, which flourished for a 
time, but when the work was suspended the place 
shrunk away. The mines along this range seem full 
of water, the west or foot-wall (the west bank of 
Indian creek) having numerous springs, which may 
come from extensive mineral deposits on that side. 
A mineral lode has once been a water channel though 
subsequent erosions and cleavages may have changed 
its course. 

NASHVILLE. 

On the north side of the Cosumnes is the place 
called Nashville, formerly Quartzburg, which, though 
in El Dorado county, may be mentioned in connection 
with the Amador mines as being the extension and 
probable termination on the north, as the Gwin mine 
is on the south, of that remarkable deposit which 
we have endeavored to describe, called the Mother 
Lode in Amador county, as north of the Nashville 
group, and south of the Gwin mine, the quartz 
deposits are irregular and cannot "compare, in pro- 



QUARTZ MINING EAST OF THE MOTHER LODE. 



161 



ductiveness or regularity, with the mines between 
the two named points. This mine was worked at an 
earlier day than any of the Amador mines, as the 
mill was a model for some of them. The mine was 
developed by Dr. Harris of Nashville, Tennessee, who 
sunk for his company some forty thousand dollars. 
The first power used was steam, but afterwards a 
dam was thrown across the river at a cost of thirty 
thousand dollars, which was a needless expense, as 
a small canal a mile or two in length, has since been 
equal to the power gained by the dam. During the 
Summer of 1851 a man by the name of Eustice, from 
Missouri, discovered a rich vein near Nashville, 
which he allowed the Mexicans to work for a royalty, 
which was an arrangement that they should purchase 
their supplies of him, which condition they generally 
observed. The Mexicans worked the rock with 
arastras, with which they are experts, and made it 
pay much better than did the mill men who came 
after them. As many as thirty or forty of these 
might be seen -grinding at a time. Perhaps two 
hundred men, women, and children were congre- 
gated around the mine, which pinched out at a depth 
of about a hundred feet. The arrangement was 
mutually satisfactory and profitable, and Eustice car- 
ried away about sixteen thousand dollars for his 
share. The mines are not worked at present, and 
seem never to have been as rich and as extensive as the 
mines in Amador county. This closes the account of 
the great Mother Lode as it exists in Amador county. 
In the chapter on the formation of mineral veins, 
reference to the mines is occasionally made. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



QUARTZ MINING EAST OF THE MOTHER LODE. 

Downs Mine — Marklee — Tellurium — Thayer — Clinton Mines — 
Mace Range of Mines — Pioneer and Golden Gate Mines — 
Quartz Veins West of the Mother Lode — Kirkendall — Soap- 
Stone or Steatite Mine — Quartz Mining in the Future — 
Put Monej in Thy Purse — School Cabinets — Copper Min- 
ing—General Craze — Country Formed into Districts— Funny 
Notices — New Towns — Result of the General Search — 
Chrome Iron — Failure of Meader— Remarkable Discovery — 
Present Condition of Copper Mining. — Newton Mine. 

No man who has made gold mining a subject for 
thought, ever doubted that the gold found in our 
gulches and rivers originally came from the quartz 
veins. When the news of the discovery of gold in 
the quartz at Sutter Creek and other places was 
learned, the belief that the quartz veins on the upper 
range of placers, which were not inferior in richness 
to the lower ones, became general.' Soldiers' gulch 
had several veins crossing it, and so had numerous 
other rich placers. Quartz boulders, with gold 
riveted through and through them, were sometimes 
found, as well as rough quartz, which did not appear 
to have been moved any great distance from the 
vein. Small veins were found with considerable 
gold in them, and in 1867 there were not less than 
one hundred stamps in operation within a few miles 
21 



of Volcano, and nearly two hundred on the upper 
range. The following table will show that the upper 
veins were being fully tried: — 









Z 


z 












M 


o 


o 








Location in 




3s= 


XT. 


> 








Amador county 


Name of Mill. 


5§ 


- 


9> 


Power 


Cost. 


Present Occupants. 


Amador Cit y . . . 


Amador 


1856 


10 




steam 


10.000 


Middleton & Co. 


t< <* 


Bunker Hill.. 


lSbo 


(. 




s & w 


12,000 


William A. Palmer. 


" " 


Fleeharti 


1866 


10 




steam 


10,000 


Gardner & Fleehart. 


" " 


Hazard 


186/ 


8 




water 


6 000 


Gardner & Fleehart. 


" " . 


Keystone 


1856 


40 




steam 


40,000 


Gashwilder & Co. 


" " . 


Spring Hill . . . 


|S56 


40 




s & w 


40,000 


Hooper & Co. 


Clinton 


Rocky Falls.. 


1865 


10 




steam 


10,000 


W. J. Paugh. 


" 


Union 


ist>s 


10 




" 


10,000 


E. T. Steen. 


Drytown 


Plymouth .... 


1(5(50 


20 




s & w 


20,000 


Hooper & Co. 


" 


Potosi 


18b < 


16 




water 


10,000 


Creed& Wood. 


" 




186b 


■?o 




s & w 


100,000 


Seaton M. Co. 


Fiddletown 


Itichmond . . . 


186i> 


10 




'< 


10,000 


Eagon & Co. 


Jackson 




1864 


16 




steam 


10,000 


O. T. Meader. 


" 


Huobards 


i860 


10 




water 


8,000 


S. C. Fogus. 


" 


Kearsings .... 


1862 


10 




'< 


5,000 


C. T. Meader. 


" 


Tubbs 


1806 


10 




steam 


10,000 


Tubbs & Co. 


" 


Oneida 


18o4 


in 




<i 


40,000 


James Morgan. 


Lower Randiccia 


Italian 


1864 


4 




" 


7,500 


Bruno & Co. 


Pine Grove 


Tellurium . . . 


1864 


10 




" 


10,000 


Cushing, Ryder & Co. 


Rancheria 


Loval League 


I8a8 


20 




water 


15,000 


Hurst & Co. 


Sutter Creek . . . 


Badger 


1808 


16 




<< 


10,000 


A. Hayward. 


" " 


Downs 


1808 


10 




<< 


10,000 


R. C. Downs. ■ 


" " . 


Eureka 


18i>8 


40 




s & w 


40,000 


A. Hayward. 


" " 


Lincoln QM Co 




20 




water 


10,000 


R. C. Downs, Supt. 


" " 


Mahoney 


18a!) 


16 




" 


15,000 


Mahoney Brothers. 


<C it 




1800 


20 




<< 


20,000 


C. T. Meader. 


" " 


Wildmana . . . 


1SOU 


12 




>< 


10,000 


C. T. Wheeler. 


Volcano 


Belding 


IS ' 1 


10 




s & w 


12,000 


California Furnace Co 




Eagle 


l S b8 


10 




" 


9,000 








" 


Fogus 


IS 1 -'.' 


10 




water 


10,000 


J. T. Farley. 


" 


Golden Gate.. 


IS 1 -'-' 


10 




s & w 


20,000 


Hurd & Co. 


" 


Italian 


180- 


10 




water 


8,000 


Rose & Co. 


" 


Monday 


1860 


10 




" 


4,000 


Fogus & Co. 


" 


Mitchells 


180.5 


■>o 




steam 


20,0C0 


Lawton & Co. 


" 


Pioneer 


18»° 


10 




s & w 


15,000 


C. T. Meader. 


" 




15,0(1 


20 




" 


20,000 


J. T. Farley. 


" . 


Sulphuret 


isw 




9. 


" 


9,000 


W. H. Thoss. 


" 


Tulloch 


lSba 


15 




steam 


8,000 


Lawton & Co. 


" 


Tulloch 


1865 


1 


1 


water 


5,000 


Tullnch & Co. 


" 


Tynan 


180b 


r: 




-it earn 


8,000 


M. Tynan. 



It took twenty years of costly experience to learn 
quartz mining and the nature of quartz veins. There 
were these differences in the veins on the Mother 
Lode and in the other parts of the county; on the 
Mother Lode the veins generally had a north and 
south direction; on the others they ran in all direc- 
tions; though, often than otherwise, conforming in 
directions to the rifts of the slate, they turned appar- 
ently at every little obstruction and had no uniformity 
of direction, dip, or strike. There was a gouge or 
selvage beside the Mother Lode; scarcely any at all 
on the upper veins, many of the largest of the veins 
being encased in solid Avails, in fact, as the miners 
use to say, melted into it. Along the Mother Lode 
was a solid wall (frequently on both sides) which was 
continuous, and could readily be traced through the 
county; on the upper ranges the wall rock, or rock 
adjoining the quartz, would change its character 
every few feet, sometimes being a hard metamor- 
phosed flinty rock, at other places turning to steatite, 
or soft, earthy slate. Those of our readers who 
studied the Mother Lode, in its entirety, will remem- 
ber the functions of a firm wall rock and the 
importance of a gouge, one as holding the quartz 
deposit to its place, the other showing a deep fissure 
or a greater length of deposit. There is a probability 
that the aggregate amount of gold in the West Point 
system of veins, which also crosses Amador county, 
is greater than in the Mother Lode of the same 
length, and so of the other veins that traverse the 
eastern part of the county within a few miles of Vol- 



1 62 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



cano. Tho great Bea thai deposited the rocks, 
didnol leave the material for a firm overlying bed, 
Tho corals, building up reefs, and modifying the 
influence of the ocean currents, perhaps, interfered 

with the deposit of a stratum as uniform in its char- 
acter as was done a lew miles farther "west. At any 
rate, when the mountains were lifted out of the sea 

the mass of rock overlying the gold-bearing strata 
opened in various directions, besides at the axis of 
elevation; hence the water holding gold and other 
minerals in solution found its way to the surface, 
sometimes through limestone, sometimes through 
granite or syenite, and sometimes through soft slate, 
the fissures following no direction long, nor extend- 
ing to great depths, as at the Mother Lode, though 
the conditions admit of exceptions. 

With these few general remarks the subject of 
their formation may be dismissed and a few of the 
mines noticed. 

THE DOWNS MINE 

Apparently conforms more nearly to a true fissure 
vein than any in the upper series yet found, though 
differing in its direction from veins on the Mother 
Lode. It has a gouge, a large amount of vein mat- 
ter or distinctly characterized rock, and firm walls, 
all of which conditions are favorable to permanence 
and depth. This mine was located as early as 1857 
by Phil. Scibenthaler, Geo. Felmath, and others. 
The rock on the surface was worked by arastras and 
paid from forty to one hundred dollars per ton. 
They then enlarged the works and put up a twenty- 
stamp mill. There was not rock enough avail- 
able to keep the mill running, and the company 
failed, work being suspended until 1866, when the 
whole property was bought by James M. Hanford 
for one hundred dollars. "Work was resumed, the 
quartz being hauled to the Fogus mill, two and a half 
miles below Yolcano, for reduction. The milling was 
badly done, saving only eight dollars and twenty -five 
cents per ton. A year later the shaft was sunk forty 
feet deeper. Two tons ground in an arastra paid 
twenty-six dollars per ton. This so encouraged the 
proprietor that sinking was continued still further. 
A swell was struck in the vein which now became 
four feet in thickness, though the body of the vein 
had no greater amount of gold than before, now pay- 
ing only twenty dollars per ton; but this was good 
rock. Fifteen feet deeper the vein contracted to its 
original width of two feet. The next crushing of 
rock, taken from below the swell at a depth of ninety 
feet, paid sixty-eight dollars per ton by the arastra 
process. It was also discovered that there were two 
continuous parallel veins within the two wall rocks, 
which were about thirty feet apart, though one of 
the veins was of much less value than the other. 
The narrow vein (the first one worked) is now pay- 
ing, by mill process, twenty-five to forty dollars per 
ton. The mill is run by water-power and all the 
appliances are calculated to work economically. All 
the circumstances point towards a permanent and 



profitable mine. The vein has an easterly and west- 
erly direction and can be distinctly traced some dis- 
tance- towards the west, showing good rock all the 
way. J. N. Peck & Co. own one extension under 
the name of the Golden Star, and Benjamin Ross 
another. 

THE MARKLEE MINE. 

This mine- is north of Yolcano and not far from 
Dry Creek. It was worked with profit for about two 
years. Many good runs were made on it. May 11, 
1872, sixteen days' run with twelve stamps netted 
thirteen thousand dollars. It was sold to an 
English company, who put some one in charge who 
was either unacquainted with quartz mining, or had 
a job on hand, as he drifted away from the pay 
chute, at least in the opinion of the workmen who 
seemed to be better acquainted with the nature of 
the quartz than the foreman. The mill and hoisting 
works were removed and the mine and improvements 
left to ruin. In the opinion of many the mine is still 
good. 

THE TELLURIUM 

Is a few hundred feet east of Pine Grove. The 
quartz in this vein is in considerable quantity, form- 
ing a regular vein. It appears rather white and pure 
to contain much mineral, but is said to pay thirty or 
forty dollars per ton, which, however, is very doubt- 
ful. The name Tellurium seems to have been given 
rather as a fanciful title than because any of that 
mineral exists in the rock. As usual with mines 
owned in cities or out of the State, the management 
has been given to incompetent men, the working of 
the mine being experimental rather than practical. 

THE THAYER MINE 

Was on the north side of Grass Yalley creek, and 
in 1859-60 was a promising vein. A man by the 
name of Thayer (from the city, of course) gave his 
name to it, and also demonstrated the inutility of 
new quartz machines, like many before and since, 
and probably many yet to come. His plan was an 
enlargement of the Chile wheel, which, in this 
instance, was made ten or twelve feet in diameter, 
shod with iron castings, and traveling in a circular 
gutter fifty or sixty feet in circumference, also lined 
with iron. The principle was correct enough, and 
has since been used with good effect with heavy cast- 
iron balls rolling in a cast-iron basin four or five feet 
in diameter; but in his case the castings worked 
loose, both in the track and on the circumference of 
the wheel, making a total wreck in the course of a 
few days. The machinery was sold for old iron, and 
work suspended for some years. Some miners 
jumped the claim and opened a paying vein, at least 
for a time. The surface of the vein, or a sheet of it, 
perhaps twenty feet wide, was found flat on the 
ground, having apparently fallen over. A hundred 
tons of this rock, crushed at the Fogus Mill, paid 
about thirty-four dollars per ton. An attachment 
was laid on the money by three lawyers from Mokel- 



QUARTZ MINING EAST OF THE MOTHER LODE. 



163 



umne Hill, all of whom were dignified as Judges. 
An expensive lawsuit followed. Surveyors were 
sent to map the ground, experts to theorize on the 
probabilities of the existence of a vein, and, in fact, 
the whole legal mining machinery which had been 
introduced into Comstock mining litigation, was 
brought into play on the real discoverei*s of the pay- 
ing vein. They had to yield. The mine is now 
nearly forgotten. 

THE CLINTON MINES 

Were once considered good, but are not worked at 
present. These belong to the Pine Grove range, 
and, like them, have a short run in length as well as 
depth. 

THE MACE RANGE 

Has the north and south trend following the rifts 
of the slate. Though rich on the surface, they 
pinch out at a short depth, 'and are not true fissure 
veins. It would seem possible that these veins are 
produced by surface action, that is, by the precipita- 
tion of minerals held in solution, by water flowing 
over the surface, as the veins seem to have no con- 
nection with a gold-bearing strata, like the veins on 
the Mother Lode. 

A good vein of ore in this vicinity may yield three 
or four thousand dollars before it pinches out. The 
milling is done by a custom mill at five dollars per 
ton, owned by F. Mace. 

Though these veins have a family resemblance, 
they differ much in character in the course of a few 
miles, sometimes being clear, hard, and blue in text- 
ure and color, and then shading into syenite sand- 
stone or hornblende. In some, the gold, though pay- 
ing well for milling, is so fine as to be almost 
impalpable. In this case, the breaking down of a 
vein by glacial or other erosion would not make rich 
placers. 

It may be observed of the country generally, that 
quartz boulders of any size usually indicate the 
proximity of a quartz vein of similar character, pi-ov- 
ing that the streams or rivers forming the beds of 
gravel, were small. This, however, does not apply 
to the great east and west river, which had its chan- 
nel on the divide between Dry creek and Sutter creek, 
which escaped the great glacial erosion. A river 
which could sweep millions of tons of volcanic boul- 
ders down the slope of the mountains, could and did, 
sweep along boulders of quartz three feet in diameter. 
Such a boulder was found in 1857, on Union flat, 
above any bed rock. It was of clear, blue quartz, 
without any admixture of iron, and had several 
hundred dollars in pure gold in a kind of stratum 
on one side, the other side being barren. The rock 
bore a great resemblance to that of the Sheep 
Ranch mine in Calaveras county, said to be one of 
the best paying mines in the State. 

PIONEER AND GOLDEN GATE MINES. 

Between the Mace, or West Point range, and Vol- 
cano, are veins of a very distinct character. They 



are narrow but well defined, going straight down, 
neither widening or pinching out. Of this character 
are the veins named at the head of this paragraph. 
The veins do not follow the trend of the country rock, 
but seem to be rather in a transverse fissm*e. They 
are from sixteen inches to two feet in width, paying 
from twenty to forty dollars a ton. The mine owned 
by W. Q. Mason, is of this group. The vein varies 
from three to nine inches in width, averaging about 
thirty-five dollars per ton, though in places the 
rock is quite rich, paying several dollars to the 
pound. This range of mines has not been sufficiently 
explored to determine the value of them. 

QUARTZ VEINS WEST OF THE MOTHER LODE. 

These are numerous, and some of them quite 
large, being in some instances thirty or forty feet 
thick, as at Dr. Randall's ranch near lone, and at 
Mrs. Nichol's ranch, in Jackson valley. The lower 
range is quite as extensive as the Mother Lode, and 
in the rich gulches and placers adjoining, bears evi- 
dence of having considerable gold. In the vicinity 
of French Camp, some of the small veins are said 
to have gold enough to pay for crushing, but as they 
do not hold their size, but ramify into numerous 
branches, they are not likely to be extensively 
worked. The Kirkendall range near Irish hill, was 
thought to be rich, but work on it is generally sus- 
pended. 

In the vicinity of Stony creek the quartz seems 
to be auriferous, but here, as at French Camp, the 
veins are neither permanent nor well defined. It 
would seem that in all this western range of quartz 
veins, copper, not gold seems to be the predominat- 
ing mineral. 

SOAP-STONE, OR STEATITE GOLD MINES. 

These mines are some miles east of the lower 
range of quartz veins, and seem to be connected 
rather with the serpentine or green ledge formation. 
There is considerable doubt in the minds of many 
who have not examined the locality, as to the pres- 
ence of gold in steatite; but the fact that all the 
gulches running from the locality were rich, ought 
to set all doubts to rest. Attention was called to 
these places twenty years since, by specimens of 
the steatite with gold, like bronze, well-distributed 
through it. There was some coarse gold found occa- 
sionally. Major Barting, who did the most to test 
these veins, found a piece in this vein thirty feet 
from the surface, which weighed some sixty grains 
or more. 

It is claimed that the rock contains twenty or 
thirty dollars to the ton; but all attempts to save it 
have been failures, the gold being so fine as to float 
off on the top of the water. 

QUARTZ MINING IN THE FUTURE. 

Much money has been expended in quartz that 
has not been returned. A few have become wealthy, 
others have made a living, and many have worn 



Kit 



HISTORY OK AMADOU OolJNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



themselves <>iit in the unsuccessful search for gold. 
The fact that gold, which made the placers, was 
originally derived from quartz, and that many of tin- 
veins are still rich, will induce the examination of the 

last one where I here is any probability, Or even possi- 
bility, of finding it. Gold! what a magic in the 
word! What a spell it will work. For gold, man will 
dare the depths of the earth, the heights of the 
mountains, the heal of the tropics, and the ice regions 
of the pole, the solitude of the plains and the crowds 
in cities. 

Those who preach moderation in seeking it are the 
first to sniff a strike, and the fiercest to strive for its 
possession. Until human nature is changed, the gold 
hunt will continue. 

" ' PUT MONEY IN THY PURSE.' 

"Make itthy soul'sdelightto gather coin. Suffernot 
thy thoughts to stray from this purpose. Make cor- 
ners in bread, so that the poor shall go hungry. 
What is it to thee that hundreds suffer? Make cor- 
ners in water, though the great Father poured it out 
without stint for all his children. Fence it up ; 
gather it into reservoirs and make the thirst as well 
the hunger of the people fill thy purse. What were 
hunger and thirst made for but to help thee put 
money in thy purse ? Watch the progress of industry, 
and bu}- up the land that lies in its coui'se. Hold 
it for high prices ; hold it until the homeless and 
landless must have it at any price. What is it to 
thee that industries are paralyzed? Put money in 
thy purse. 

" Thy brother may be fainting by the wayside, 
crushed by misfortune and sickness. Heed not his 
cry of agony. Shut all avenues of the heart to the 
cries of suffering humanity. What is the world to 
thee ? Put money in thy purse. 

" The world is full of beauty. Every little flower 
that opens its petals to drink in the sunshine, is full 
of marvelous, self-acting machinery. Heed it not. 
Turn not aside from thy great work. The rocks of 
the earth, all the elements, tell a wondrous story of 
the creation, extending through myriads of ages, of 
changes from chaos to order; from darkness to light 
and life; of alternating ages of torrid heat and icy 
solitude. The stars spangling the infinite blue deep, 
tell a marvelous tale of the extent of God's works, 
and suggest the possibility of a future greatness of 
the soul ; of a wandering at will through endless 
beauty — wondei'ing, admiring, and learning. Leave 
such things to fools; they are nothing to thee. Put 
money in thy purse. 

" Work for money with all thy might, mind, and 
soul, and it shall flow to thee, as the water floweth 
to the sea, in streams ever widening and deepening, 
gathering strength as it comes. Thou shalt own 
broad acres in the hearts of cities, and principalities 
in the country. Thy flocks shall cover a thousand 
hills, and thy bank accounts increase by da}' and hy 
night. Though in the pursuit of wealth thy fea- 
tures become the incarnation of all that is vile, a 
record of years of sin, at thy approach with the 
golden key the doors of palatial residences will fly 
open; obsequious servants will conduct thee to the 
innermost shrine; melodious voices wiil sing for thee 
the sweetest songs; gray-haired wisdom will lend 
thee its aid, and youth and beauty will come to thy 
arms. Thou mayest ride rough-shod over the people, 
for hast thou not the where with? 



■ lint know. O mortal! that thy millions cannot 
purchase one atom of love or respect; that the poor- 
est sewing girl in the city, or the dirtiest dustman, 
is richer than thou art, lor some one may have for 
them a tender thought; but thou shalt be abhorred 
of all. When sorrow comet h to thee, no heart will 
beat in sympathy, no tears will mingle with thine. 
Every man's hand will be against thee, as thine has 
been against mankind. Every dollar of thy millions 
will be a demon to gnaw thy withered, shrunken 
soul. Thy heart shall be like a desert land, without 
green thing, fountain, or shade. The harpies of the 
law shall quarrel over thy ill-gotten wealth, as the 
wild dogs and wolves over the fallen bison of the 
plains, and thou shalt have lived in vain, for what 
doth thy wealth profit?" 

Gold mining and the pursuit of wealth will go on 
nevertheless, and may be regulated, but not pro- 
hibited. 

SCHOOL CABINETS. 

Cabinets of elegant curiosities abound everywhere, 
but, notwithstanding, there is a great deal of con- 
fusion regarding the names of the commonest rocks. 
The metamorphic slates, constituting the wall rocks 
of the quartz veins, are generally called granite, 
than which nothing is more different. A collection 
of a hundred common rocks, properly labelled and 
cased, at the school-houses, would cost but little and 
would soon have a perceptible effect in remedying 
the confusion. 

COPPER MINING. 

Copper, in quantity, was first discovered in Cala- 
veras county, at the place afterwards called Copper- 
opolis, by W. K. Eeed, July 4, 1861. The outcrop, 
along where the Union and Keystone mines were 
located, was very marked, and large quantities of 
oxidized ores were taken out near the surface, as well 
as fine specimens of native copper, some of which 
were arborescent or crystallized in form. There were 
also lar-ge quantities of impure oxide of copper (cop- 
per smut) mixed more or less with red oxide. These 
ores were all shipped to Swansea, England, for reduc- 
tion, and the profits were such that fortunes of half 
a million were made in a little time. It is said that 
the Union mine opened the largest body of ore ever 
discovered in the world, the shipments from it being 
made on an immense scale. The run of ore was 
three hundred and fifty feet long, and from four to 
nine thick at the upper level; twenty-one feet at 
the depth of two hundred, and thirty-one feet at the 
depth of two hundred and fifty feet, all of No. 1 and 
No. 2 ores. Other mines in the vicinity were also 
rich. The shipments from Stockton of the Copper- 
opolis ores, netted in 1863 six hundred thousand 
dollars; in 1864 over one million dollars. For the 
first year or two little attention was paid to cop- 
per in other places, but the rapid development of the 
mines, and shipment of ores with profitable returns, 
soon set hundreds to tracing out the copper forma- 
tion. The gossan or calico rock, so named from the 
spotted appearance caused by patches of iron rust, 
was found in a thousand places, and on uncovering 



-__ ___ — 




%v^^'^Mx^^e^f^ 



Residence and Livery Stable df PETER FAGAN, 
Sutter Creek, Amador C° Cal. 



Lirt.BfiirroH bKsr.S.r 



/ 



QUARTZ MINING EAST OF THE MOTHER LODE. 



165 



the l'ock, mundic or sulphuret of iron was generally 
found a few feet from the surface with a little copper 
also. Considerable veins were found at Lancha 
Plana and Campo Seco, especially at the latter place. 
Several companies were organized and the shipping 
of ore commenced. In 1862 Dr. Newton, near lone, 
commenced sinking for copper on general principles 
rather than any practical knowledge of the ores or 
croppings; but the following Summer, 1863, he struck 
a vein of shipping ore, and the excitement in Amador 
county commenced. It was found that the calico, 
or gossan rock, was common over a tract of country 
eight or ten miles wide, east and west, and extend- 
ing from the Mokelumne to the Cosumnes rivers. 

GENERAL CRAZE. 

Within four months, or by the first of October, at 
least one thousand men were at work sinking on 
every discoloration of rock that could be found. At 
first some attention was paid to the range, but soon 
the veins were found everywhere, though not in 
sufficient quantity to be of any commercial value. 
A vein of four inches of black oxide of copper was 
discovered on the top of Bald hill, near Buena Vista, 
and shares were soon selling at the rate of two hun- 
dred thousand dollars for the prospect. This claim 
or mine was known by the name of Bull Run. The 
Star of the TV est, not far away, also went up to a 
fabulous price. Quite a town, Copper Centre, sprang 
up in the vicinity and many more sites were staked 
out. The lone City company struck a vein of a few 
inches in thickness near Stony creek, and shares 
were immediately held at two thousand five hundred 
dollars per hundred feet. Shares in an adjoining 
claim without the color of cojiper were worth two 
hundred dollars. Copper could be melted out of the 
ores of many of the veins with a common black- 
smith's forge. This was the case with a vein an inch 
or two in thickness near Sutter creek (name of the 
mine forgotten), and forthwith each hundred of the 
two thousand feet was worth one thousand dollars. 
Many of the companies incorporated with a capital 
stock of one hundred thousand to one million dollars, 
and opened offices, hired secretaries at salaries from 
fifty to one hundred dollars per month, issued hand- 
somely printed certificates of stock, and did 
everything that Washoe companies did. Large 
handsome signs such as, Office lone City Copper Min- 
ing Company; Office Chaparral Copper Mining 
Company, indicated the " Copper on the brain " 
which was afflicting almost every one. 

COUNTRY FORMED INTO DISTRICTS. 

The country was all districted off, recorders 
elected, and laws passed, which were recognized in 
the courts as valid and binding. The fees for 
recording a location were usually one dollar, with 
an additional twenty-five cents for each name 
attached to the notice. Some of the recorders would 
make one hundred dollars a month at this alone. 
Placer mining was nearly suspended in the hunt for 



copper. Not less than three hundred companies 
were doing constant work between the northern 
and southern boundaries of the county, besides 
others who were doing enough to hold the ground. 
Tunnels hundreds of feet long were run in the hard 
metamorphic slates, just to strike the supposed range. 
The serpentine range had a green color, and was 
thought by many to be copper ore. "Uncle Thomas 
Rickey " formed a company of two hundred or more, 
to run a tunnel into this, near Poe's ranch. " It would 
only cost a dollar to get in, and if they struck any- 
thing there would be enough for all." This tunnel 
was run something over two hundred feet. Fifty 
companies were sinking near Horse creek, one hun- 
dred near Forest home, fifty or more in the vicinity 
of lone, as many more near Jackson and Stony 
creeks; in fact, it was hard to find a hill which was 
not claimed, with a little work done to hold the 
ground. Some of the notices were amusing enough. 

FUNNY NOTICES. 

Hon. W. A. Ludlow, now of Oakland, is authority 
for the following: — 

" tack Notes thee unter singd clant two Huntent 
foot Sought on thes Loat from thee mans Neten 
bushes 

Febuary 12 1863 

Clamte sought ter Pint three" 

"Nota Bean Is here By given notes ter unter 
signed clame too cooben clames of too Hunter feet 
square sought Nort too 200 Hunter feet 

Thounship 

No 5 
AmTore country feb 12 63 " 

" Take Notes the untersiGent chlames North 400 
foot to a mains neeten Bush for Preubens of Mining 
Coper 

Febuary 12 one thousand 800 63 " 

Lest people should think this style was owing to 
the absence of the school-master, the following notice 
for the sale of property in Berkeley, in the shadow 
of the University, is appended: — 



; "FerrSall Tur Mes Ezi." ; 

Selling claims or shares was a profitable business, 
and stock gambling came near being established. 
Almost every person had his pockets full of rocks, 
and wanted to sell shares. 

The finest and best arranged collection of ores and 
croppings was collected by Judge Carter, of lone. 
Some twenty or thirty of the leading mines were 
fully represented, cropping and ores being arranged 
in the natural order from the top down. It should 
have been preserved for the use of schools. 

NEW TOWNS. 

Forest Home, Mineral Cit}*, and several other 
towns sprang up in the northern part of the county, 
where the excitement was greater, if possible, than 
in any other part. The One Hundred and One, or 



160 



IllSTollY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Goswm/nea Company, shipped considerable ore, as did 
several olber companies. The McNealy Company 
i Arroyo Seco Copper Company), near Muletownj ulso 
shipped several hundred tons of ore. C. T. Meader, 
of Stockton, became the copper king of the Stale, 
buying into man}- promising locations, the Newton 
mine among others. This was extensively oper- 
ated, and numbers of teams loaded every day for the 
water-front. 

RESULT OF THE GENERAL SEARCH. 

A thousand shafts were sunk, many of them strik- 
ing copper in small quantities. The serpentine range, 
spoken of in the chapter on geology as an axis of 
elevation, seemed to be the center of the copper 
belt. The deposits on the eastern side were gener- 
ally in bunches of a few tons, capped with iron ore. 
At one point, between Stony and Jackson creeks 
twenty-three of these chimneys could be seen within 
a space of half a mile squai*e. Around the Mountain 
Spring House the " mineral caps" were equally notice- 
able before they were removed for grading the turn- 
piked road. This section of the country is well 
worth the attention of mineralogists for its indica- 
tions of other minerals than copper. Some of the 
shafts near the serpentine struck asbestos in consider- 
able quantities, Avhich is likely to be valuable. 

CHROME IRON 

Was also found in quantity in several places, one 
vein, now claimed by the Westfall brothers, being 
nearly three feet thick. Twenty years since, this ore 
was worth sixty dollars per ton, but since the dis- 
covery of large quantities of it in Sonoma and other 
places, it is worth only the cost of mining it. 

In the Autumn of 1863, some five or six companies 
were shipping ore, and a hundred more were expect- 
ing to do so soon, but the whole thing collapsed in a 
few months, leaving the million of dollars or more, 
which had been expended in the search, a total loss. 

FAILURE OF MEADER. 

The first intimation of the coming panic was the 
failure of C. T. Meader, the copper king. He had 
not only bought into copper mines, but into quartz 
mines as well. The Coney mine had passed into his 
possession, and he had engaged extensively in ship- 
ping under the name of " Meader, Loler & Co." 

When his failure came, it involved the mines in 
which he was engaged in litigation, which had the 
effect of tying them up for several years. Among 
the causes mentioned was the depreciation of copper, 
which went down, in the course of two years, from 
twenty-eight to fourteen cents a pound. It was said 
at the time that this depreciation was the result of 
a conspiracy on the part of the Swansea Companies, 
to break down the mining of copper in California; 
but the reports of the discoveries, not only in Ama- 
dor and Calaveras, but all over the State as well, 
would be likely to affect the market. In Nevada 
county the Well claim was said to be inexhaustible, 
having a body of ore two hundred feet in width. 



In Arizona there were, as it was said, miles of dykes 
of ore standing in sight on the top of the ground. 
The mines of Lake Superior were also pouring into 
the trade a marvelous quantity of copper, so that 
it was hardly necessary to suppose a conspiracy. 

Pour years afterwards, .Meader, in accounting for 
his failure, said that his copper stocks had depre 
ciated in value two million two hundred and forty 
thousand dollars, and that his total indebtedness 
was one million two hundred and ninety thousand 
dollars. The extreme depreciation continued for sev- 
eral years, totally suspending copper mining, many 
of the claims being abandoned, and all being allowed 
to fill up with water. From this latter circumstance 
came the discovery of a cheaper method of i-educing 
the ores. 

At the time work was suspended many of the 
tools were left in the mines. When the, water was 
pumped out three or four years afterwards, a 

REMARKABLE DISCOVERY 

Was made. Every piece of iron or steel left in the 
ground had been decomposed, and around it was an 
oxide of copper, with a brown luster, which would 
assay ninety -five per cent, copper. Shovels, hammers, 
drills, iron bai'S, car wheels, and spikes used in fast- 
ening timber, were solid copper, bearing some resem- 
blance to the original articles. The steel drills were ir- 
regular tubes, the hollow part retaining the shape of 
theiron. This was a discovery. Instead of having to 
sbip the ores to Swansea at an enormous expense, 
they could be leached; that is, after the exposure of 
the ores to the air they decomposed, and became 
converted into sulphate of copper (blue stone of 
commerce) which was soluble in water. The water, 
beino- run into large vats, was brought into contact 
with scrap-iron, which could be bought for a trifle; 
the iron had a stronger affinity for the sul- 
phur, and the copper was precipitated in the form of 
a brown powder, which was nearly pure copper. 
By this method very poor ores can be worked with a 
profit. It must be said, however, that not all the 
copper ores can be worked in this manner. The 
number of veins containing workable ore, is, per- 
haps, hundreds, possibly thousands. Though no 
colossal fortunes will be made, yet they are likely in 
the future to give profitable employment to a great 
number of men. 

PRESENT CONDITION OF COPPER MINING. 

The Newton lead, owned by a Boston company, is 
the only one that is extensively worked. This was 
the first to make use of the process of leaching and 
precipitation. Under the able management of Ed- 
ward Johnson, the mine has not only been put on a 
paying basis, but the way shown to utilize the 
small bodies of copper ores which abound on the 
east side of the serpentine ledge, as well as the 
larger ones on the west side. The works now cover 
several acres of ground. The vats, piles of scrap-iron — 
which now come near to the mine by rail — the piles 



JACKSON. 



167 



of ore, through which the water is slowly soaking, 
and the hoisting works, all serve to make a business 
appearance. 

The main shaft is four hundred and thirty feet 
deep, from which four levels have been run each way 
about two hundred feet, exposing large bodies of 
double sulphurets of copper and iron. These levels 
are all connected by winzes with the air shaft. Some 
of the higher grades of ore are sent to Swansea for 
reduction, but the larger part are reduced on the 
ground. About forty men are employed about the 
works. 

Eeduction by leaching is also in use, to some ex- 
tent, in the mines near Forest Home. Copper mining- 
is a promising element in the prospects of the county. 



CHAPTBE XXX. 
JACKSON. 

Capture of the County Seat — Killing of Colonel Collyer — Loss of 
the County Seat — Bull Fight and Election — Mines — First 
School — Improvements in 1854 — Hanging Tree — Griswold 
Murder— Great Freshet 1861— Great Fire 1862— Flood and 
Loss of Life 1S78 — Big Frolic — Celebration of Admission Day 
— Mokelamne River — Murphy's Gulch — Hunt's Gulch — 
Tunnel Hill — Butte Basin — Butte Mountain — Butte City — 
Marriage in High Life— The Gate— Ohio Hill— Slab City- 
Clinton — Spaulding's Invention. 

During the Summer of 1848 this was a stopping 
place for persons traveling between Drytown and 
Mokelumne river, though some mining was done 
with batayas by the Mexicans, at the spring near the 
National Hotel. The number of bottles left around 
the spring by travelers, gave it the name of Bottil- 
leas. until it was changed to Jackson, in honor of 
Colonel Jackson, who afterwards settled there. It 
does not appear that any number of men wintered 
here in 1848, though some of Stevenson's soldiers 
wintered at Mokelumne Hill. The first permanent 
white resident of which any account can be found is 
Louis Tellier, who still resides on the first location. 
When Jim Martin and his company of eight passed 
through Jackson, or rather where it was not, there 
was a Mexican cart standing near the spring. Louis 
Tellier's first house was a log cabin covered with raw- 
hides; he also had a large army tent which had been 
used in Mexico. In early days freight to Sacramento 
was as high as one thousand dollars per ton. In 1850 
it was reduced to two hundred dollars per ton. To 
Volcano from Sacramento it was two hundred and 
fifty dollars. There were no bridges, and, even in 
Summer-time, both men and animals were sometimes 
drowned. Lumber was worth three dollars per foot, 
the floor of a small room costing six hundred to one 
thousand dollars. The roads were mere Indian 
trails, which were, in many instances, too narrow to 
let wagons through. 

There were two roads to Sacramento; one by 
way of Eancheria and Drytown, the other by way 
of Buena Vista. Louis Tellier caused the latter 
trail to be cut wide enough for a wagon, at his own 



expense. The trail nearly followed the road towards 
Lancha Plana to Stony creek, thence to the right 
over the Blue ridge. During the Summer, Mr. 
Hough, Mrs. Hough and her sister, came to the 
town, these two being the first white women in 
the tOAvn. Mrs. Hough is now living in Diamond 
Springs, the second is living in Jackson, the widow 
of McDowell, the first Justice of the Peace in Jack- 
son. The union of Miss Hough and McDowell, was 
the first wedding. Mrs. Silas Penry is the daughter 
by that marriage. Charles Boynton built the " Astor 
House," and also a bowling saloon. History does 
not give us many particulars regarding the archi- 
tectural merits of the " Astor House," nor as to the 
architect who planned it. It was equal to any build- 
ing in the city, however, though it was built of logs, 
and daubed with mud. There was a cabin near 
where E. W. Palmer's house now stands; also one 
on the site of his stable, occupied by John Papac, 
a Chileno. Towards the Gate was a cabin, with the 
sign, " brandy and sugar," hence called the Brandy 
and Sugar Hotel, kept by a man by the name of 
Kelley. He also sold bread and butter; a slice off 
a loaf baked in a Dutch oven, was sold for one dollar; 
if buttered, two dollars. He charged one dollar 
per. night for room to spread the blankets on the 
ground floor. 

A Dr. Elliot had a tent near the site of the Central 
House where he sold goods. During the Autumn an 
emigrant sold his tent for six dollars; the rains com- 
ing on soon after, he paid one dollar a night for the 
privilege of sleeping under it. Evans came in March, 
1850, with some beef, slaughtered on the Cosumnes, 
packed on some animals. He hung his meat on a 
pole resting on two forked posts, and soon sold out 
and went after more. His business flourishing, he 
soon after opened a store at Secreto (near Clinton) 
another at Butte, and a larger one at Jackson, near 
the site of the National Hotel. His store was of 
logs, and, not being well chinked, he filled up the 
holes with hams, the shank bones sticking out all 
around. He soon associated with him D. C. White 
(who afterwards put up the soda works), and A. 
Askey, the latter having remained with him since. 

Duncan & Gage (who afterwards kept a Chinese 
Bazar at San Francisco), Levinsky, Sloan, Stevens, 
Steckler, Captain Dunham, and others, came soon 
after Evans. Levinsky had a large store for many 
years, as also did Steckler. Stevens run the Young- 
America saloon; Sloan afterwards lighted Jackson 
with Aubin gas. Captain Dunham kept a meat mar- 
ket near the hanging tree. There were also the two 
Doctor Shields (called the big doctor and the little 
doctor), one, it is not certain which, having a wife. 

In August, 1850, there were but seven buildings 
in the town, some of which were empty. These 
were Louis Tellier's, White & Evans', Henry and Fred- 
erich Beeves' (on the hill near Butterfield's), one 
where Kent now lives, occupied by Mr. Hough and 
family, one at Palmer's house, and also one near his 



L68 



BISTORT OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



stable and the Brandy and Sugar Eotel. Dan Wor- 
ley, now living near Drytown, visiting Jackson one 
day, thooghl to gel a clean Bquare meal cooked by 
a woman, bul excepl for the aame of the thing 

would as .soon have eaten in bis own cabin. Iiill of 
fare: Fried steak, bread, and black coffee, $1.00, 
with. ■ II' yon don't like it stay away." 

FIRST GREAT EVENT IN JACKSON. 

This was do less than the capture of the county 
scat. This brilliant exploit seemed to have had its 
origin in the fertile brain of Charles Boynton. When 
Calaveras county was organized, Double Springs 
somehow obtained the county scat. It had but one 
house, which answered for Court House, saloon, 
store, and hotel. The place had not grown as was 
expected. The county seat, metaphorically speak- 
ing, was reaching out its arms for a more suitable 
home; and Jackson, with its less than a dozen houses, 
was willing to receive it, and nurse it to greater 
strength. Elections and Acts of the Legislature, 
means usually invoked in such matters, were set 
aside as involving too much time, altogether too 
slow for the lively town of Jackson. One morning, 
while Double Springs was resting quietly on its 
dignity as a shire town, the enemy appeared, smil- 
ing as usual. They (Charles Bojmton and Theo. 
Mudge) walked up to the county seat's bar, and 
throwing down the coin, according to the custom 
of the country, invited all hands to imbibe. The 
population of the town, or at least the larger part, 
responded with alacrity, the larger part being Col- 
onel Collyer, a rather pompous, portly Virginia gen- 
tleman, fond of telling good stories, and fonder still 
of good liquor, never refusing the opportunity for 
either. While one detachment of the enemy art- 
fully engaged the attention of Colonel Collyer, who 
was county clerk, and in that capacity custodian of 
the archives, another detachment at the other end 
of the room gathered the archives under his arm, 
tumbled them into a buggy, and ran away with 
them to Jackson. When the Colonel found the 
county seat had vanished, he raised his portly form 
an inch or two higher, swung his cane furiously 
around his head, and swore that the army should 
be called out to vindicate the dignity of the court. 

A shake shanty, at the foot of Court street, had 
been prepared for the bantling, and, on the arrival 
of Boynton and Mudge at Jackson, the archives 
were desposited with the proper ceremonies, the 
liquors being remarkably fine; and Jackson became 
the center of government for the great territory of 
Calaveras, which extended from Sacramento to the 
Rocky Mountains. Judge Smith, the County Judge, 
seemed to be on hand, ready to administer justice; 
in fact, he was suspected of having connived at the 
abduction, which act, it is said, was in part the 
cause of the tragedy occurring soon after. The 
County Clerk was induced to take his place, and 
issue the proper papers, dated at Jackson, for the 
convening of a court. 



TRAGEDY — KILLING OF COLONEL COLLYER. 

A l the election for county officers, held soon aftei 
tip' removal of the county seat, Joe Douglass, can- 
didate I'm- the clerkship against Colonel Collyer 
received the larger number of votes. The Colone 
locked up the returns in his desk, in order to hold 
the office until Ins successor was qualified, which 
could not well be done without the counting of the 
votes, with his official signature to the result. Judge 
Smith broke open the desk in the absence of the Col- 
onel, counted the returns, and issued the certifier 
of election to the successful candidates, Joe Doug- 
lass among the rest. This put a new face on the 
affair. The feud, occasioned by the removal of the 
county records, now grew into an open war. 
Threats to shoot Judge Smith on sight induced him 
to arm himself, and when they met, near the foot 
of the present Court street, Smith commenced firing, 
hitting Collyer, who does not seem to have been 
armed, two or three times. The shots were fatal, 
and Collyer fell at the foot of a large oak tree grow- 
ing there, and shortly after expired. Smith was not 
tried for the homicide, but public indignation was so 
strong that he resigned. It is said, however, that as 
Smith was a Northern man and Collyer a Southern 
man, the people took sides accordingly in approving 
or condemning, and thus foreshadowed the great 
contest of ten years later. 

The few residents of Jackson got up a celebration 
of the Fourth. McDonnell was the orator, and com- 
pared the Constitution to a " crystal palace with its 
pedestal towering to the skies." 

EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY. 

In the Fall a great immigration came in, and by 
the 1st of December, Jackson had in the neighborhood 
of a hundred houses. Harnett, who afterwards 
lived in lone valley, built and kept a restaurant near 
the Astor House. Henry Mann and John Burke 
also had a restaurant, near the tree afterwards 
famous as the "hanging-tree." It was in this house 
that the Indian, Coyote Joe, was tried for killing the 
blacksmith near the Gate. The wife of Helmer Tur- 
ner, present Deputy County Clerk, is a daughter of 
Henry Mann; a son is junior partner of the firm, 
Hutchinson, Mann & Co., engaged in insurance in 
San Francisco. Mr. Mann lost his life in a singular 
manner. A tame bear was kept tied to the famous 
tree near Mann's restaurant. One day he had been 
moved to a lot where some shoats were kept, which 
his bearship commenced killing. Mr. Mann, in try- 
ing to return the animal to the tree, angered the 
bear, which gave him a hug that proved fatal in two 
or three days. Mrs. Mann afterwards married W. 
L. McKimm, the wedding taking place on the top of 
Butte mountain. 

Streeter and family, wdao afterwards lived on Dry 
creek, resided here during the Winter of 1850-51. 
Sheldon Streeter was the first white child born in 
Jackson. 




Residence and Ranch df 320Acres JEFFERSON BA1RD. 
3 Miles N.E.erdm Plymouth, Amador Cg Cal . 




Residence and LumberYard df E.S.POTTER. 
Plymouth, Amador C° Cal. 



0fH7-7-Of>/ %f*£T 9. 



JACKSON. 



169 



Medical attendance was expensive in those days, 

physicians charging enormous fees. The following 

fee bill was posted up in a doctor's office: — 

For one visit with medicine $ 16 00 

Reducing a fractured limb §50 00 to 100 00 

Parturition 100 00 

The following story on medical charges is on the 

said so of Tom Springer of the Ledger: — 

" Doctor Marsh, who was murdered in Contra Costa 
county about 1856, was formerly owner of a ranch 
in this county. Being called upon in a professional 
capacity to visit a sick child, he got the mother to 
wash a shirt for him. 

" On leaving he made out a bill for services amount- 
ing to fifty cows — the exact number of the woman's 
herd of cattle. She acknowledged the debt, but at 
the same time made out a bill to the same amount 
for washing his shirt. The doctor went off grum- 
bling at the high rate for washing in California." 

SECOND REMOVAL OF THE COUNTY SEAT. 

Mokelumne Hill having outgrown Jackson, was 
hankering for the distribution of the public moneys 
among her own people. According to the law passed 
by the Legislature in 1849-50, the county seat might 
be moved every year if a majority petitioned for an 
election and two-thirds voted for the change. It 
was little trouble to get names on a petition of any 
kind, and, as events subsequently proved, not very 
much trouble to get votes in those days. An election 
being ordered, Jackson would make an effort to keep 
it. Though Mokelumne Hill had the votes, Jackson 
had the talent and daring, which, once before, had 
captured the county seat. 

It was determined to gather a great multitude by 
means of a free bull-fight, hoping to out-vote Mokel- 
umne Hill. Accordingly a corral was prepared, bulls 
engaged, and great inducements offered, or, as the 
play bills said, unparalleled attraction. 

The bulls, some seven or eight in number, were 
brought in some day or two before, and fierce looking 
fellows they were, with their long slender horns and 
sleek hides, and the excitement was immense. It 
looked as if Jackson had got the bulge on the Mokel- 
umne " Hellyons." Lest the cattle might be sur- 
reptitiously turned loose, a guard of three or four 
men with rifles, was stationed at the gate to insure 
the safe keeping of the animals. But the Mok- 
Hillians were not asleep. They began to gather in 
horses; they were not going to be beaten with a bull- 
fight. They announced that the bull-fight was not 
coming off. A delegation of trusty men was sent to 
Jackson to watch the enemy. During the night they 
plied the guards so well with whisky that they slept 
at their posts, during Avhich time the Mok-Hill- 
ians quietly undid the fastenings without disturbing 
the sentinels. Getting on the opposite side of the 
corral they raised a great hullabalo, hearing which 
the guards sprang to their feet only to be tossed and 
trampled by the infuriated beasts, which charged at 
a run through the open gate and were gone in a 
moment. 
22 



The Spanish bulls having gone, an attempt was 
made to get up an entertainment with American cat- 
tle, but they would not entertain worth a cent, and 
the crowd programme was a failure. It was now 
learned what the horses at Mokelumne Hill were for. 
Bands of men were riding furiously all over the coun- 
try voting at every precinct, but the horses of 
Jackson were few, and when the sun went down 
Jackson was beaten, because the other side had the 
most horses. An enormous vote was cast, out of all 
proportion to the population. 

MINES. 

The gulches around Jackson were generally good, 
though no such strikes were made as in Mokelumne 
river. The north fork of Jackson creek was good 
to its head; the south and middle forks were also 
good. The best spots were near the junction of the 
creeks, not far from the National House. A few men 
made as high as five hundred dollars per day at 
times. Thomas Jones had one of the best claims. 
Nuggets worth two hundred and fifty dollars were 
taken out near Dick Palmer's house. Hough also 
had a good claim near the same place. One day 
some immigrants inquired where they could find 
diggings, and a place was pointed out. In a few 
days they took out fourteen pounds each, and went 
home. The flats in the vicinity of Tunnel hill 
were also good. Jackson owed its prosperfty more to 
being a convenient center than to any mines about 
the town. The different forks of the creeks came 
together at Jackson. The roads to Volcano, Mokel- 
umne Hill, and the southern mines, passed through 
here, and all helped to make it a center for a large 
extent of country. 

FIRST PREACHING. 

The meeting was held in Mann's saloon in 1850. 
The preacher (Southern Methodist), took a drink 
before commencing service. His preaching was 
profitable to himself at least, his receipts at the 
close of the sermon being over a hundred dollars, 
of which sum Harnet gave twenty dollars, and 
Laura Stubbs, afterwards Harnet's wife, giving ten 
dollars. This was about all the preaching that Win- 
ter. Davidson and his three partners (of what was 
called the Minister Quartz Company, working at 
Amador), preached occasionally the following Sum- 
mer. I. B. Fish was the first established preacher. 
He belonged to the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
He was a fearless man, of good mind and 
great force of character, and did not hesitate to 
denounce the popular vices of the age. At lone, 
especially, he won the enmity of saloon-keejiers and 
gamblers. The first church was built in 1853 by 
subscriptions, costing two thousand dollars. 

THE FIRST SCHOOL 

Was taught by Mrs. Trowbridge, using the Methodist 
church for a school-house. She was one of the few 
pioneer women who felt the responsibility of living 
where female influence was so great, and will be 



170 



HISTORY OF AMADOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



romcmborod as using it for tbo advancement of so- 
urly. Sovoral children, around Jaekson at tbo 
time, were going to ruin for tbo want of a mother's 
oare. Mrs. Trowbridge obtained clothes for them, 
induced them to go to school and otherwise cared 
for them. Goo. O. Ash, now a leading member of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church in this Slate, owes 
his. early training and subsequent success to Mrs. 
Trowbridge's care when ho was a motherless waif. 

in 1834 

Tho advent of tbo county scat gave Jackson a 
great lift. Several brick buildings were put up 
about this time, among which was tho building at 
the bridge used as a Court House after the big fire, 
the house used by Ingalls as a drug store at 
the corner of Main and "Water streets, and some 
othei's not recollected. 

"With the increase of population came also all 
kinds of mercantile institutions, where beauty and 
frailty had a market value. The sounds of music, 
the clinking of glasses, the chink of money as the 
gambler paid out his losses or raked in his winnings, 
were in time and tune with the other towns of Cal- 
ifornia, neither better nor worse. The town was or- 
ganized, and a Board of Trustees and Mayor elected. 
When the first term of court under the new organ- 
ization was in session, the Grand Jury recommended 
that some attempt be made to suppress the disor- 
derly houses — meaning the bouses of ill-fame. No 
attention was paid to it, but at the next session the 
Grand Jury acted more vigorously. Several men 
were indicted for keeping disorderly houses. The 
Grand Jury, visiting some of the houses, were 
shown licenses for doing business, which the parties 
construed into doing their kind of business; so they, the 
Grand Jury, indicted the town authorities for issuing 
the licenses, though the charge was " for obtaining 
money under false pretenses." A. C. Brown, acting 
as attorney for himself and other members of the 
Board, acknowledged the service of the papers, and 
gave security for appearance. 

The affair caused quite an excitement, but ended 
in nothing, as District Attorney Axtell appeared in 
court the next morning and entered a nolle prosequi 
in the cases, and Judge Gordon dismissed them. 

The indictments against the parties keeping the 
disorderly houses were continued until the next 
term, and then dismissed for want of evidence. Al- 
though these matters did not result in suppressing 
these institutions, they showed that public opinion 
was getting intolerant of the display of such places, 
and from this time they rather evaded than courted 
publicity. 

GAS WORKS. 

About this time, Sloan and some others established 
gas works. Pipes were laid along the streets and 
in all the public places. The works were on the 
ground occupied by the rear of R. W. Palmer's stable. 
There was a bench of three retorts, and a tank or 



gasometer holding perhaps five thousand feet. Pitch 
wood was used for making the gas which was called 
Aubin gas. Great hopes were entertained of the 
project, but the quality of the gas, owing to the 
defective machinery for purifying it, was uncertain. 
Sometimes the light from it was brilliant, then going 
entirely out; and the experiment was abandoned. 
The pipes were afterwards utilized as water-pipes. 

THE GREAT FRESHET. 

Eighteen hundred and sixty-one found Broadway 
built quite across the creek, the houses resting on 
posts, Avhieh were set in the ground but a little ways. 
It was nine years since the flood of fifty-two and 
three, and the people either had forgotten, or would 
not believe that the forks of Jackson creek would 
sometimes float a steamboat, and so they rested in 
security. The American Hotel, Young America 
Saloon, and other good houses, were built over the 
channel on Broadway. On the continuation of 
Main street, beyond the Louisiana Hotel (now 
National Hotel), was a row of barber-shops and 
saloons. The rains commenced about the first of 
December, and continued without much inter- 
mission for some weeks, until the ground was so 
full it could bold no more, each shower sending the 
streams, already full, over the banks. When the 
main rise occurred, bringing down trees, timber, 
fences, and mining machinery, the channel soon 
choked. The flood now turned into Water street, 
running along in front of the Louisiana Hotel, 
carrying off the wagon-shop to the west of the hotel, 
with its contents, and endangering the safety of all 
the buildings along the street. At this point the build- 
ings began to give way. The American Hotel 
actually floated up stream a little, which caused the 
remark that it always was a contrary concern and 
would not go like other buildings, referring to its 
having been an unprofitable investment. Slowly the 
mass of buildings, with the bridge, gave way and 
started, grinding along and tearing away the out- 
buildings which bad been built from both sides into 
the creek. The row of barber-shops and saloons on 
the next crossing hardly checked the movement, and 
the mass went grinding and crashing into the canon 
below, and the channel was cleared and the danger 
passed. Some twenty buildings went off in this 
burst, involving a loss of perhaps fifty thousand 
dollars. The quantity of lumber of all kinds that 
went down the creek through Jackson was enor- 
mous. It was fished out at all points. Several 
thousand feet could be gathered in a few hours, so 
much broken, however, as to be useless except for 
wood. Much of it went into the bay and thence to 
sea. 

INCIDENTS OP THE FRESHET. 

The buildings taken away from the foot of Broad- 
way and Main streets, with their contents, went 
tearing and crashing down the canon, and for some 
weeks, broken doors, windows, counters, and all 



JACKSON. 



171 



kinds of goods, were thrown ashore or fished out of 
the creek below. One day, Dr. Crawford and Sam 
Folger, the latter now in business in Jackson, were 
eno-ao-ed with others in wrecking in Jackson valley. 
Now a door, which they recognized as coming from 
the Young America saloon, would come to land; 
then a window from the American Hotel; then a 
part of the outhouse of the Louisiana, the parties 
extracting a good deal of fan out of the work. A 
bottle of some kind of liquor, miraculously preserved 
from breaking, during its journey through the 
Devil's Mill, as the canon was called, came rolling 
and bobbing along, and was fished out. JSTow the 
Young America had the reputation of keeping the 
best liquors in the county. If it should be some of 
Bristow's whisky, as Mrs. Toodles says, "it would 
come so handy;" but there were barbers' and doctors' 
shops carried away also, and it might be hair oil, or 
hair dye, or some other horrible stuff, and it naturally 
fell to the Doctor to try it. He smelled and tasted, 
and smelled and. tasted again, and ominously shook 
his head. "Better not touch it, Folger, it may be 
poison. Let me try it again;" taking a liberal sam- 
ple, again shaking his head, but the indescribable 
look of satisfaction over-spreading his countenance, 
induced Folger to test it also. It was some of Bris- 
tow's best, and a very acceptable find to the wet 
fishermen. 

THE HANGING-TREE. 

This tree which has become noted wherever the 
name of California is known, formerly stood near 
Louis Tellier's saloon, and was a live-oak, with sev- 
eral branching trunks. It was never very beautiful, 
but was a source of so much pride to the citizens, 
on account of its history, that its likeness was 
engraved on the county seal, so that its appearance 
is not likely to be forgotten. 

Its use at first as a hanging- tree, was quite acci- 
dental; but in the course of time the tree was a 
terrible hint for the quick solution of a criminal 
case, and when the tree was injured by the great 
fire of August, 18C2, so as to necessitate the cutting 
of it down, the feeling regarding its fate was not 
altogether sorrowful.' 

The first case was "Coyote Joe," an Indian, 
charged with killing a blacksmith at the Gate, for 
the purpose of getting his money. He was tried 
by a jury of miners, Dr. Pitt acting as foreman, and 
found guilty, as some of the specimens the black- 
smith was known to have, were found on the Indian's 
person. The trial was in a restaurant, not far from 
the tree, and he w#s soon hanging. 

The second case was that of a Chileno, who stabbed 
a woman who was his cousin; he was tried by a jury 
of citizens, found guilty, and shortly hung. 

In 1851, two Frenchmen were murdered in Squaw 
gulch near the Gate. One was stabbed with a lonii' 
bowie-knife thirteen times, dying immediately; the 
other, though cut five or six times, lived for several 
days. Suspicions were fixed upon a young Mexican, 



who was afterwards arrested by Waterman H. Nel- 
son, Sheriff of Calaveras county (this being before 
the organization of Amador) at Sacramento, and 
brought to Jackson handcuffed to another young 
Mexican who had been arrested for horse-stealing. 
The examination was before Bruce Husband, Justice 
of the Peace. The testimony was so positive that 
there was no doubt of the guilt of the accused, and 
as the atrocious details of the murder came out the 
French portion of the population became excited 
beyond all control, and they determined to hang the 
Mexican at all hazards, and so told the Sheriff, who 
determined that the prisoner should be taken to 
Mokelumne Hill for trial. The French armed them- 
selves with shot-guns, and the Americans with pistols, 
the latter with the intention of defending Nelson if 
he was assaulted. The murderer was still hand- 
cuffed to the other Mexican who was arrested for 
horse-stealing. How to get them apart was. the 
question, and at one time it seemed as if both would 
be hanged together, but Martell, the blacksmith, 
finally cut the chain in two, releasing the horse-thief. 
Now commenced the exciting part of the affair. The 
Frenchmen had assured Nelson that they would not 
hurt him. The Americans looked on, admiring the 
pluck of the officer, caring little what became of the 
" greaser." It was remarked that if one shot-gun 
went off there would be fifty dead men in five min- 
utes. Twice the rope was placed around the fellow's 
neck, and twice it was cut by the Sheriff. Sompayrac, 
a French merchant, was asked to say something to 
allay the excitement, but he only shouted, "Hang 
him! hang him!" Nelson was finally overpowered 
and the Mexican was hanged. It may be a matter 
of doubt whether Nelson's apparent struggle to 
maintain the dignity of the law was not half, at 
least, in the interest of the mob, as no arms were 
used or exhibited by him. 

The other prisoner got out of the crowd and went 
to the Union Hotel. The proprietor, Colonel Allen, 
remarked that the crowd would hang him also. 
" Did you steal a horse ?" asked Allen of him. "Yes, 
I took a horse and rode him." (Allen.) " You sale 
este camino?" pointing to a trail that led down the 
creek. "Si SeFior." (Allen.) " Vamos," giving the 
Mexican a shove. He left, making excellent time as 
long as he was in sight, and thus escaped, for that 
day at least, a hanging. 

Some accounts state that the two Mexicans were 
hanged, but the above statement seems to be the most 
authentic. 

In 1853, a party of Mexicans, said to have been 
Joaquin's band, robbed some Chinamen, killing two of 
them and tying the others on the creek below the 
town. Joe Lake, a butcher, in his rounds to sell his 
meat, rode up to the camp at the time the robbery 
was going on, and was killed by the Mexicans. One 
Chinaman escaping, came to the town and gave infor- 
mation of the tragedy. A party was made up and 
the Mexicans were pursued and overtaken; in the 



172 



HISTORY OK AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



running fighl which ensued one was severely 
wounded and was afterwards arrested in Lanclia 
Plana, taken to Jackson and banged. 

In IS") I, in March or April, a CbilenO living in 

Jaokson, attempted to rob a China camp on Cook's 
gulch, west of Jackson. The Chinamen got the bet- 
ter of him, tied him and brought him to town, where 
ho paid the penalty of his crime by hanging. 

March 2:'». 1854, a Swede, name unknown, was 
hung at Jackson, for the stealing of a horse from 
Evans and Askey. As there has been much talk 
of this matter, a short account of the stealing of the 
horse and its subsequent recovery, and the capture 
of the man, may not be out of place: The horse, a 
valuable and noticeable one, was taken from the 
stable on the night of the 17th. Suspicion immedi- 
ately fixed itself on the person afterwards arrested, 
who had been camping in the vicinity, with no 
ostensible occupation. The camp was visited, but 
the man was gone. A blanket stolen at the same 
time, was found there, however, which served to 
confirm the suspicion with regard to the author of 
the theft. He was traced out of town towards the 
south; thence he turned north, making a wide cir- 
cuit, and got on the Drytown road. At the Cos- 
umnes ferry, the man and horse crossed early in 
the morning, both man and horse being identified, 
as they were subsequently at Mud Springs (El 
Dorado). Here they lost the trail for one day, but 
recovered it again on the Auburn road, both horse 
and man being in company. Here he offered to sell 
the horse, saying that he had sold the mate for 
three hundred dollars. He was eventually captured 
near Bridgeport, in Nevada county. The chain of 
evidence establishing his possession of the horse 
from the time of the stealing to his capture, seemed 
perfect. From these circumstances, no value what- 
ever was attached to the bill of sale which he pro- 
duced, which read as follows, — 

"Sac. City, March 16, 154. 
"Mr. C. Bennet Bot of C. Cuper, for one gray 
horse, Three Hundred & Forty Dollars. Title guar- 
anteed. 
" W. Holman, Auctioneer. C. Cuper." 

Nor of the story which he told of having purchased 
the horse from a traveler on the road, with the 
transfer of the bill of sale. 

On the way back, hundreds recognized both man 
and horse, so there seems no possible doubt of the 
guilt of the man, whatever may be thought of the 
hanging. He had a trial of only a few minutes, on 
the steps of the Louisiana House, at sunrise, soon 
after coming to the town. A rope was put around 
his neck, and he was hurried to the tree, only a few 
people being present. He tried to explain away the 
charge against him, saying that he bought the horse 
of a traveler, who transferred the bill of sale with 
the horse. He could not speak English, and Levin- 
sky, whose store was near, interpreted for him. 
His body hung until noon before it was cut down. 



There was a valuable ring on one of his fingers. A 
man, now living in Jackson, whose name does not 
deserve mention in this book, not being able to pull 
the ring off the swollen finger, cut it off; some say 
on a butcher's block, which was near by. It is also 
current that the several claimants to the ring played 
a game of cards, to see who should have it. 

Public opinion was very much against the lynchers 
in this affair, and the next Grand Jury found bills for 
a high crime against several prominent citizens, who 
took an active part in the matter, and they found it 
convenient to be absent from the town, at several 
subsequent courts, to give color to the legal fiction 
that the parties named in the indictments could not 
be found. 

In 1855, two Mexicans tried to rob a China camp, 
about four miles below Jackson. They met with 
unexpected resistance; one being stunned with a 
blow from a hatchet, the other making his escape. 
The Chinamen wound their prisoner with ropes from 
head to foot, so tightly that he could not bend, and 
then guyed him up liked a smoke-stack to a steam 
saw-mill, and sent to town for help to arrest him. 
When the whites got there they found him standing 
in the middle of the camp with ropes reaching out 
from him, all around, holding him to his place. He 
was brought to town and hung. 

August 10, 1855, Manuel Garcia, one of the Ranch- 
eria banditti, was wounded in the running fight on 
the Calaveras river, taken and carried to Campo 
Seco, from which place he was taken to Jackson by 
Perry and Eichelberger. He was immediately hung 
by the people. 

Soon after this, or about the 15th of August, two 
Mexicans were hung for complicity in the Rancheria 
murders. Manuel Escobar, of the same party was 
the tenth and last. The tree was injured in the 
great fire of 1862, and was cut down. 

GRISWOLD MURDER. 

On November 7, 1857, Martin Van Bnren Griswold 
was murdered under circumstances that attracted 
the attention of the people, not only of the county, 
but also throughout the State. Griswold was a 
daring, self-possessed, and powerful man, who 
crossed the plains to Oregon in 1848. On his arrival 
in Oregon he learned of the discovery of gold in 
California, and, with his usual decision of character, 
be immediately turned toward that place. He 
ai*rived in San Francisco in April, '49, and went to 
Placerville, where he mined with rather indifferent 
success, but afterward struck it l'ich at Oregon Bar, 
"making his pile." After traveling about California 
awhile, he started for New York by way of the 
city of Mexico. While there he got out of coin and 
went to the mint to get his dust exchanged for gold, 
which they agreed to do, but afterward insisted upon 
'his taking silver. Ho brought the mint officers to 
a sense of right by drawing his revolver upon them, 
and departed with the gold coin. Ho reached New 



JACKSON. 



173 



York without farther mishap, New Year's clay, 1850. 
After spending a few weeks with his family, he 
started again for the Golden State, this time by way 
of Milwaukee and the great North- West, the then 
terra incognita, but now the gi'eat wheat-field of 
the world. Passing down the KedEiver of the North 
to the Selkirk settlements, he swung away toward 
the McKenzie and Copper Mine rivers to the out- 
posts of the fur companies, and from thence made 
his way to Oregon, which place he reached Christ- 
mas day, 1850, having been nearly a year in making 
the trip, passing through the territory of twenty 
different tribes of Indians without a mishap. For 
some years he oscillated between San Diego and 
Siskiyou, San Francisco and the Sandwich Islands; 
was a prisoner among the Klamath Indians, from 
whom he escaped after two years of imprisonment, 
during which time he experienced many desperate 
adventures. He finally settled clown with Horace 
Kilham, an extensive mine and ditch owner near 
Jackson. Large quantities of gold-dust were bought 
and sold at this 'place, the safe having at times 
fifty thousand dollars or more in it, a great tempta- 
tion to Chinamen (several of whom worked about 
the place) who were in the habit of working for a 
mere pittance. One clay he was missing; on examina- 
tion the gold in the safe was also gone. For a 
moment suspicion fell on Griswold, but his friends 
scouted the idea of Griswold playing the scoundrel. 
Foul play was certain. With a man of his active 
temperament it was difficult to tell where he might 
not have been waylaid. 

Hundreds of men from the adjoining mines were 
soon there; every possible contingency was can- 
vassed. It was discovered that the China cook was 
also gone, and had been seen some miles away in 
company with other Chinamen. A thorough search 
of the premises was now made, but not until th e 
next day was any clue to the mystery found, when 
the body of Griswold was found under the China- 
man's bed. Death was produced by two fractures of 
the skull, apparently by a blow from the rear, by 
a blunt instrument, though it was apparent that 
after the infliction of these wounds he had been 
struck in the front by some sharp instrument, again 
breaking the skull. To make assurance doubly 
sure, the murderers had drawn a chord tightly 
around the neck; but this was needless, the work 
was thoroughly done. In the room was found a heavy 
club, also a slung-shot, which had been seen in the 
possession of the Chinaman some weeks before the 
murder. Large rewards were offered for the appre- 
hension of the China cook and his friends, who had 
been seen with him, the Chinese residents of Jack- 
son contributing largely. The whole State was on 
the watch. The parties were arrested in Marysville 
through the assistance of the Chinese residents. 
there. The key of the safe, some jewelry, and other 
articles known to have been in the safe, were found 
on their persons. They received a fair trial, had the 



benefit of able counsel, and were found guilty. Three 
were sentenced to be hung, and were executed on 
the sixteenth day of April, 1858. The fourth one 
indicted was given the benefit of a doubt, and his 
trial postponed; but he anticipated justice by com- 
mitting suicide in his cell. Fou Seen, the cook who 
is supposed to have planned the murder, and called 
in the other parties to assist in the matter, was none 
of the simple "Heathen Chinee," but had been an 
extensive traveler, and was, in China, a desperado. 

GREAT FIRE AUGUST 23, 1862. 

So far fires at Jackson had been comparatively 
insignificant. Drytown had been swept as if by a 
whirlwind. The citizens of Jackson had looked 
across the river and seen Mokelumno Hill, their an- 
cient rival, blackened with the charred remains of 
their town. Jackson had, to some extent, provided 
for a fire, having two fire-engines and a hook-and- 
ladder company. Shortly after one o'clock the 
alarm of fire was raised, and smoke was seen issuing; 
from an out-building in the rear of the assay office. 
The firemen were quickly at their posts, and for a 
few minutes it seemed that the firemen had the better 
of it. There are different accounts as to the cause 
of the failure to control it; some say that the water 
in the tank or cistern failed; others that the assist- 
ant engineer ordered another stream from the main 
engine to be turned on without increasing the supply 
hose, which so weakened the force of the streams 
that they would not reach the fire. Whatever may 
have been the fault, the fire spread, and in a few 
minutes was beyond all control. The houses, mostly 
of pine, shriveling in the hot sun, caught like powder 
and flashed the fire from one to another, until the 
only question was to save life — property was not to 
be thought of. The Court House being some dis- 
tance from the fire, permitted the saving of the 
records; but the house itself went like a pile of brush. 
In some instances people had to make their escape 
from beseiged houses with wet blankets over their 
heads. Iron bars, one inch by three, used for the 
support of balconies, though on the outside of the 
buildings, were seen to melt and fall from their own 
weight. A phenomenon occurred here that is much 
disputed: the smoke, rolling along the ground in the 
narrow alleys, would become so intensely heated 
by the flames above as to take fire and explode like 
powder. The Union Hotel was built around three 
sides of a quadrangle, which was filled with bedding 
that the occupants had thrown out of the windows 
in hopes of saving it, but the flames lapped over the 
place, and in an instant the whole mass added new 
strength to the hungry element. Colonel Allen, the 
proprietor, left with his music-box under his arm, 
that being the only thing saved. Stoves, hardware, 
church-bells, and glass, were melted into one con- 
glomeration. The fire swept everything on the road 
towards Sacramento, till it reached the wagon-shop 
near Trenchel's brewery, where it was stayed with 



174 



HISTORY OF AMADOU OOITNTV, CALIFORNIA. 



tho aid of a bose used in that establishment. On 
the south side it was met by the tiro department 
from Molcolumnc Hill. At. night the town was a 
Bmoking ruin, the tall, ghostly chimneys keeping 
watch over the soothing embers, while tho inhab- 
itants weir campod on tho surrounding hills, house- 
less and suppcrless. Children, for tho first time in 
their lives, wont supporlcss to bed, and that bed tho 
earth, and tho sky for the coverlet. There was no 
despair, however; no wringing of hands and shedding 
of tears. Before darkness came, lumber was en- 
gaged to rebuild some of the houses, and in tho 
morning was actually awaiting the cooling of the 
hot ashes and cinders. Provisions came pouring in from 
the surrounding towns, and there was no suffering. 
As the people sat around the smouldering ruins of 
the town, many incidents were related, which, if 
recorded, would be interesting reading now. Hair- 
breadth escapes of children and women snatched from 
burning buildings which fell a moment after, were 
common enough. In some instances, women seemed 
to have been helpless from fright; in others, the 
love for home seemed to be stronger than the love 
for life, and they had to be carried out by force. 

The fire department came in for its share of the 
heroic. Some cynical man had predicted that in 
case of a general fire, the boys would lose their engine. 
When the engines failed, and the flames were flash- 
ing from street to street, most of the men ran to 
save their families, leaving but a few to see to the 
machine, and for a time it looked as if the prediction 
was to be verified. Two or three men, however, 
commenced tugging at it, when the cloud of smoke 
which enveloped them, flashed like an explosion of 
gas, compelling the men to get under the truck for 
protection; in a moment the smoke and flame 
cleared away, and the boys rolled it out. 

After the fire was over many a deed of heroism 
and devotion came to light; for misfortunes have 
the good effect to bring to light the jewels of charac- 
ter that otherwise might have never shone through 
the incrustations of selfishness. The savings of 
years of industry were gone, but the indomitable 
energy and perseverance that had built up the town 
were not destroyed, and the people went to work. 
A hundred new buildings were erected before the 
rainy season set in, and in one year all marks of the 
fire were effaced. 

It has been impossible to collect anything like a 
full list of the losses; a few may be mentioned: — 

Levinsky, $20,000; H. W. Allen, $15,000; W. L. 
MeKimm, $7,000; J. Samuels, $15,000; Tellier, $1,000; 
Harris, $3,000; Evans & Askey $5,000; A. O. Brown, 
$40,000; Steckler & Co., $10,000; M. Bruml, $5,000; 
H. Kress, $3,500; Moses Medina, $7,000. 

The following, from the California Spirit of the 
Times, edited by Marcus D. Boruck, will give a lively 
idea of the fire: — 



" LETTER FROM MOKELUMNE HILL. 

"MoKELUMNE Hill, August 25, 1862. 

"You are probably aware, by this time, of the 
total destruction of tho beautiful and flourishing 
city of Jackson, Amador county. On Friday last I 
passed through it at four o'clock, and everything 
betokened peace and security; but it is now no more, 
the lines of the city being scarcely perceptible. 1 
visited the place yesterday morning, and a more des- 
olate and melancholy looking place I never saw; 
and seeing it a short time before in all its beauty, I 
could more keenly appreciate the destruction which 
surrounded me on all sides. But the people, with 
that wonderful elasticity which so far forcibly char- 
acterizes all Californians, were smiling and passing 
jokes on each other with scarcely a thought of what 
had passed. With the exception of three or four 
brick buildings on Main street, and a few private 
residences to the right as you enter the town from 
this place, the city has been totally destroyed. All 
the principal buildings, including the Court House, 
theater, Amador Ledger, and Amador Dispatch print- 
ing offices, the post-office, Colonel Allen's Union 
Hotel, and the Louisiana Hotel of Evans & Askey 
being in the wreck and ruin. 

"The smoke of the fire was seen at this place at 
fifteen minutes of two o'clock (five minutes after it 
broke out) and there could not have been less than a 
dozen opinions as to its locality; every other place 
but the right one having entered into its discussion. 
At last, Mr. Moses, the telegraph operator, said he 
could not get the operator at Jackson, as the circuit 
was broken; and then all became satisfied that it 
was Jackson. The fire, in the meantime, had mate- 
rially decreased; but all of a sudden the flame and 
smoke could be seen ascending from the hill-tops, 
and the conflagration increased with alarming rapid- 
ity. A large number of people from this place 
started for the scene (many of them on foot), a dis- 
tance of six miles, over the roughest kind of a mount- 
ain road, and the thermometer — — , as high as you 
please. They arrived at the scene, however, in time 
to save the houses of Mr. Coney and Mr. Axtell, 
situated on either side of the road this side of the 
gulch, and thus prevented the further spread of the 
fire in that direction; all they could do in the town 
itself, was to save the Masonic building. The fire 
broke out at twenty minutes of two o'clock, and at 
five o'clock the destruction. of the town was com- 
plete. When the alarm was first sounded, there 
was not the remotest idea entertained that the place 
was doomed, the city being provided with an effec- 
tive fire department, and full cisterns of water. The 
fire broke out on the right hand side of Main street, 
as you leave the town for Sacramento, a few doors 
from Court street, an avenue which led direct to the 
Court House, and in the rear of the Ledger office. 
When the fire was first discovered, it was about as 
big as a man's hat. The apparatus was promptly 
brought out, and taken to the cistern on High 
street, a few doors from the Court House; the fire- 
men, under the direction of Chief Engineer Wells, 
working admirably. There was a fatal mistake in 
getting to work, which consisted in not placing one 
of the engines on Main street, where there was an 
abundance of water (the cisterns being full to the 
brim when I saw them yesterday morning), thus 
preventing the fire from bursting through on to the 
front, it having commenced in the rear from hot 
ashes having been thrown into a barrel which stood 
against a frame building. Both engines being at 



JACKSON. 



175 



the same cistern, and that a small one, it soon 
became exhausted, and in a short time the firemen 
were horror-stricken to find they were .drawing 
nothing but air. It was at this point that the peo- 
ple of this place saw the fire decrease, and then as 
suddenly increase, for at one time the firemen had 
the fire entirely under their control, when the Chief 
Engineer was compelled to give the order to change 
position; and, in carrying it out, before it could be 
accomplished, the fire gained such headway on them 
that they could not master it, and spread three dif- 
ferent ways, barely giving them time to save their 
apparatus, with a loss of four hundred and fifty feet 
of Button's patent coupling hose. It was then that 
no further reliance could be placed in the fire depart- 
ment, and the apparatus was abandoned, except by 
a few who removed it to a place of safety. The fire 
now spread with fearful strides, which, combined 
with the intense heat of the weather, added to the 
terror of the scene. The safety of women and chil- 
dren was looked to, and an effort made to save 
])roperty, but it was useless. Tbe fire swallowed 
up everything in its capacious maw, and when. the 
sun went down on the disaster, the town, including 
all the provision in it, was turned to ashes. 

"As I have before stated, the fire broke out at a 
quarter before two o'clock, and ended its course at 
five. At that hour definite information was received 
at this place of the great disaster. In fifteen minutes 
a meeting was held in front of II. Atwood's Union 
Hotel, presided over by Jeff. Gatewood, Esq. The 
circumstances Avere narrated, and a committee con- 
sisting of Dr. Hcerchner, W. S. Moses, and Dr. Sober 
appointed to collect subscriptions. At six o'clock a 
four-horse team, belonging to Mr. Taft, started 
laden with provisions and blankets, under charge of 
Mr. Chas. Spiers, which reached Jackson about 
half-past eight o'clock, much to the joy of the inhab- 
itants of the desolate place. At eight o'clock an 
adjourned meeting was held at the Court House, 
where reports were made that at least fifteen hun- 
dred dollars in provisions and money had been 
collected, and seven or eight teams forwarded to 
Jackson with provisions. Judge Badgely spoke at 
this meeting, and gave a detailed account of all the 
circumstances, he having gone through the fire. I 
never saw such good feeling manifested by any peo- 
ple as those of this place, and more promptitude 
shown in acting in such a matter; without their aid, 
the people of Jackson would have been in a terrible 
condition. They acted in a manner which will 
always cause Mokelunine Hill to be remembered 
with pride and pleasure. 

"On this morning sixty dollars' worth of fresh bread, 
innumerable provisions and blankets were sent. 
When I arrived at Jackson this morning, thirteen 
hours after the fire, there were at least a dozen 
loads of joist, lumber, and planking, in different 
localities, waiting for the burning embers to cool, 
preparatory to rebuilding. The town will be rebuilt 
long before the rainy season, although the losses are 
severe, at least seven hundred and fifty thousand dol- 
lars, upon which there is said to be an insurance of 
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which I hoj)e 
is the fact. The fire-proof buildings were about as 
much fire-proof as a sheet of paper. The Chief Engi- 
neer ordered the walls of Steckler & JSTewbauer's 
building, at the corner of Main and Court streets, 
to be pulled down, and also that of LevinsUy Broth- 
ers, on Main street, on account of their tottering 
condition. I should judge that in the construction 
of the former, at least two barrels of cement were 



used, and, in the latter, not less than a barrel and a 
half — perfect counterfeits on the name of fire-proof. 

"The Amador Ledger will be issued from the Chroni- 
cle building this week. I have not learned what dis- 
position the Amador Dispatch people have made in 
regard to a re-issue. Springer saved his two inside 
forms, but not a letter of type besides. In regard to 
the fire department of Jackson ('every member of 
which is a sufferer by the fire), too much praise cannot 
be awarded for their efforts. They were unfortunate, 
it is true, in their choice of position, and, like 
McLcllan, were forced to change their base of opera- 
tions, and in doing so the enemy attacked their right, 
left, and center; but notwithstanding all that, they 
made a gallant fight. Disastrous fires have befallen 
other departments much more experienced than they. 
In rebuilding the town, I would suggest to the depart- 
ment of Jackson to locate one of their engines in 
the neighborhood of where the Louisiana and Union 
Hotels stood, near where the new hall was to have 
been built, and the truck, on Court street, above 
where it stood before. 

"It will never do in the world to mass the appa- 
ratus as was the intention before the fire; and above 
all, more cisterns and larger ones; they are the real 
dependence for a prompt supply of water in the 
event of a fire. To say that we sympathize with 
Jackson in this great disaster is unnecessary. The 
Spirit gives prompt assurance of that. To condole 
with Cahfornians is not to be thought of, but that 
there may never be a repetition of the event of Sat- 
urday last is our fervent wish. B." 

JACKSON FLOOD, FEBRUARY 17, 1878. 

A remarkable flood occurred in Jackson and 
vicinity, on the 17th of February, 1878. For some 
weeks the streams had been bank full; but, as sailors 
say, everything was made snug and tight, and no 
one anticipated any particular trouble, and were 
unprepared for a flood which had no precedent in 
the history of the State. Since the denudation of 
the hills of their wood, the country has become sub- 
ject to extraordinary showers, the rain coming down 
in torrents, or, as the people usually call them, cloud 
bursts, which seem to be a condensing point, or 
meeting, of two opposing currents of wind which 
remain stationary for some considerable time over 
a tract of country. The strip of land ten or twelve 
miles wide near the foot-hills, seems to be particu- 
larly subject to these rains. Several of these showers 
have passed over the bare hills in the vicinity of 
Lancha Plana, and more particularly along the ridge 
west of Jackson and Sutter creek. Fifteen, or even 
ten minutes' rain, was enough to raise a stream 
three feet deep, in a gully two or three hundred 
yards long; and streams that have a mile or two in 
length, come roaring along with a breast or wall 
of water, generally held back to some extent, by 
trash or timber, of five or six feet, running a stream 
deep enough for a steamboat to float, where ten 
minutes before there was scarcely a drink for an ox. 
Usually, these showers extend over but a small 
space; otherwise, general destruction would occur. 
Those who were watching the weather on that Sun- 
day morning, noticed a dense bank of clouds to the 
south-east, with a line something like the colors 



17G 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



scon in tempering steel, dividing this bank from a 
similar one in the north-west, both banks of clouds 
charged with water; both seemingly determined to 
"fighl it on that line," the ominous line of precipita- 
tion being drawn just over Jackson. The wind 
which for some time had been quite a gale, 
ceased, like a breathing spell before two opposing 
armies lock themselves in the embrace of death. 
The fall of a leaf could be heard on the ground, but, 
high up in the air could be board the roaring of the 
tierce, surcharged currents, as they met each other. 
Down came the rain, great drops as large as bullets, 
some feet apart at first, but soon nearer together, 
until one could not see ten steps away; in five 
minutes the hill-sides were a sheet of running water, 
the little gulches were creeks, and the creeks, rivers; 
still the rain continued for some time. When its 
force seemed exhausted, and silence had come, a 
great roar of rushing waters, mingled with shouts 
and shrieks, was heard; the waters from the head 
of the north fork, and the other forks heading near 
the New York ranch, had come rolling in a wall 
or breast, variously estimated at five to ten feet 
high, carrying before it houses, barns, logs, fences, 
and uprooted trees. 

It struck Chinatown (the north end of Jackson), 
carrying everything in its way. A few were able 
to take out some articles, but in five minutes the 
stream was full — struggling Chinamen, houses, shops, 
goods, all in a rolling mass. Most of the Chinamen 
escaped before the stream entered the canon. Six of 
them went down the stream in the wreck, the 
bodies being afterwards found all the way from 
Jackson to Buena Vista. Some white men, assisting 
the Chinamen, were carried down the stream, but 
saved themselves before they entered the canon. 
In half an hour or more after the flood had swept 
Chinatown away, the middle fork, which is longer 
than the north fork, came booming the same way, 
with a bulk-head of timber, fences, and trees. It 
struck the bridge across the creek near G-enoehio's 
store, forming a dam, and for a few minutes the 
stream turned through Jackson, in front of the 
National House; and at one time it seemed as if all 
that end of the town would be swept away in one 
wreck. Several persons narrowly escaped drowning 
in the streets. A foot-bridge, belonging to Mushet, 
lodged in the street in front of the National. The 
bridge finally gave way, and the channel cleared, car- 
rying with it all the out-houses and lumber in its 
course. The flood was over, and people could then 
estimate their losses. 

The Amador Canal Company were damaged to the 
sum of thirty thousand dollars by the breaking of 
reservoirs and ditches. 

The French garden above Jackson lost about two 
thousand dollars; Geo. Clark, four miles above Jack- 
son, one thousand dollars. 

Some considerable damage was done to ranches in 
the valley also. 



The following is a partial list of the losses:- 



os watBii ' i ' 

J. B. Phelps 

H. I. Stribley 

Mrs. Westfall 

X. Draper 

B, S. Sanborn 

R. M. Brigge 

Henry Barton 

Mrs. S. Bradley... 

E. G. Freeman 

Mat. Ryan 

\V. Little 

A. C. Brown 

C. Welter 

R. Hall 

J. Williams 

E. (Jenochio 

F. Rocco 

J. A. Butterfield. . . 



$ 500 00 


200 00 


100 00 


100 00 


300 00 


100 00 


500 00 


1,000 00 


100 00 


100 00 


100 00 


100 00 


100 00 


50 00 


100 00 


300 00 


2,000 00 


700 0C 



A.S.Kelly $ 100 03 

National Hotel 250 00 

Benjamin & Ledou.. 1,000 00 

Thos. Jones 500 00 

R. W. Palmer 000 00 

B. F. Richtmyer. ... 100 00 

Bridges 7,500 00 

OX MAIS STREET. 

Frank Guerra 100 00 

Madam Retrou 200 00 

B. Sanguenetti 400 00 

Benjamin & Carreau 1,500 00 
Eight China stores 

and contents 15,000 00 

P.Kelly 700 00 

Geo. White 300 00 

Antone Silva 250 00 

John Belleuomini. . . 200 00 



INCIDENTS. 

As one Chinaman sat astride of his house, which 
was whirling in the canon, some one asked him: — 

" Where you go, John?" 

"No sabe," says the Chinaman, in an impatient, 
savage manner. It was supposed that he was 
drowned in the canon, but two or three days after 
the flood, he came to life, or rather he came walking 
into town, being probably the only man whoever 
successfully navigated Jackson creek through the 
canon. 

BIG FROLIC. 

Thanksgiving day, 185-, was the witness of the 
most extraordinary frolic that ever occurred in the 
county. No one could tell how, or exactly when, it 
commenced, but as the sun went down it was evi- 
dent that there were sounds of revelry in the air; 
but this was no gathering of beauty and chivalry. 
As the whistling of the wind through the rigging 
sends the sailor aloft to make all snug, or the moan- 
ing of wind around the chimney portending a storm 
sends the thrifty housewife out to gather in her 
wash from the clothes-line, so at the ominous signs 
the careful mother sends after her son, and the pru- 
dent wife seeks her husband, for the Bacchanalian 
press gang were out. 

Some were drinking who never drank before; 
Those who always drank now drank the more. 

As usually sober men found themselves getting more 
than was good for them, they determined that their 
friends should share the pleasure or disgrace. An 
eminent lawyer once asked, how do men, who never 
get drunk, know each other? Did not Ityron say of 
a man, "lie is a splendid fellow and I long to get 
drunk with him"? and of another that he had "tried 
him drunk and tried him sober, there's nothing in 
him"! All who had held office, or had run for it, 
or were known to want it, as well as those who 
drank, were sought out and pressed into service. 
When the hunt commenced some retreated to their 
homes, but the warrant for arrest reached them even 
there, and men were torn from their wives' arms. 
O. D. Aniline's wife, firmly locking her arms around 
her husband, declared that if they took her husband 










Residence^ Ranch of MRS MARY M. KIDD, 

Jackson Valley, Amador CQCal. 




Residence and Ranch of 320 Acres, INGLEFIELD B.GREGORY, 

Jackson Valley, Amador C° Cal. 



. antrrorf %c **r £ P. 



JACKSON. 



177 



they should take her also, and looked as if she meant 
it too, and the party had to leave him. 

They took possession of the Young America saloon 
and appointed a door-keeper who locked the door on 
the outside, opening only for the admittance of new 
victims, no egress being permitted. A press gang 
waylaid the Judge, who was expecting to hold court 
the next day. He resisted their importunities a 
long time on the grounds of public duty, but he had 
been known to take a spree and no excuse would 
answer now. " Good-bye, boys," said he; " it can't 
be helped." What took place on the inside can only 
be guessed. Some in their wild excitement were 
tossed like foot-balls over the tables. Speeches and 
songs, and shouts mingled in confusion dire. Four- 
teen dozen of champagne had their necks broken. 
Some were soon helpless on the floor; one or two 
escaped from an upper window, and some were able 
to keep up the orgies till midnight. When morning 
came those who were able had left. The Judge's 
pants were found on the steps of the Court House, 
other garments in other places. He, with a sense of 
public duty still uppermost, was delivering a charge 
to an imaginary jury. The officers of course took 
care of him until he was sufficiently sober to 
attend to business, which was not for some days. 
The Grand Jury found a Bill against him for mis- 
demeanor and conduct unbecoming a magistrate. 
The Judge complimented the jury on having fear- 
lessly done their duty, acknowledged the delinquency 
and promised that they should never have occasion 
to do so again, and with his silver tongue, which so 
often had charmed away opposition, turned aside the 
righteous indignation of his constituents. 

CELEBRATION OP ADMISSION DAY. 

[Taken from Amador Dispatch.] 

" The celebration of the 30th anniversary of the 
admission of California into the Union by the Ama- 
dor Pioneer Association, in this place last Thursday, 
was one of the most pleasing, unique, and successful 
affairs of the kind ever witnessed in the county, and 
reflected great credit upon the Association, owing 
to the excellent manner in which the programme 
was carried out from beginning to end. The pro- 
cession was formed about ten o'clock, and was quite 
an extensive and imposing affair, extending nearly 
the whole length of Main street, and consisting of 
pioneers and others on foot to the number of about 
one hundred and fifty, many of whom were armed 
with guns of various kinds, axes, and other imple- 
ments generally used in frontier life, also, pioneers 
and others on horseback, followed by a large num- 
ber of vehicles of various kinds, including a regular 
emigrant ox-team, driven by our pioneer friend, 
William Cook of Buena Vista, who was rigged up 
for the occasion in regular '49 style, including a 
huge leather belt to which was attached the inev- 
itable pistol, bowie-knife, tin cup, etc. This and the 
dilapidated looking emigrant wagon which followed, 
loaded with women, children, frying-pans, pots, ket- 
tles, tin pans, and other cooking utensils, formed 
one of the most familiar and noticeable features of 
the grand procession, and created much merriment 
among the hundreds of spectators who thronged 
23 



our streets. After marching through the principal 
streets of the town, under the command of the hand- 
some and energetic Marshal of the day, E. W. Pal- 
mer, who was closely followed by Kay's lone Cornet 
Band, the procession wended its way to the picnic 
ground in Walker's ranch, where the literary and 
musical exercises were gone through with, consist- 
ing of an oration by Hon. J. A. Eagon, poems by C. 
B. Swift and J. F. Gould, an impromptu address by 
Hon. J. T. Farley, singing, music by the band, etc. 
Our room will not permit us to speak in detail of 
these exercises, but suffice it to say that they all 
did well, and the audience were well satisfied there- 
with. At the conclusion of these exercises, all 
hands were invited to partake of a sumptuous lunch, 
consisting of pork and beans, and other substantial 
edibles, and the invitation was accepted with a vim 
seldom surpassed in this or any other country. 
After dinner, horse-racing, foot-racing, and other 
amusements were indulged in until near sundown, 
when the procession and many of the spectators 
returned to town to prepare for the grand ball in 
the evening. 

"The ball, like everything else connected with 
the celebration, was a grand success, Bove's hall 
being well filled with gay and festive pleasure-seek- 
ers of both sexes, who enjoyed themselves in a man- 
ner well calculated to create envy in the heart of 
a king or prince — or even a country editor. In 
short, nothing transpired during the day or night 
to mar the pleasures of the occasion, and the affair 
will hereafter constitute one of the most pleasing 
pages in the history of Amador county." 

MOKELUMNE RIVER. 

It is uncertain whether gold was first mined on 
the Mokelumne river or at lone valley, though the 
discovery, according to Weber's account, was on the 
Mokelumne. In the Summer of 1848 James P. Mar- 
tin passed through lone valley, "on his way to 
Mokelumne river, Hicks' rawhide house being the 
only improvement there. A man was mining at 
lone. A Spanish cart was doing duty as a house 
near where the National Hotel now stands, there 
being no houses at the time, or even mining, at 
Jackson. At first, Martin's company of eight men 
were the only ones on the river, though quite a num- 
ber came in shortly afterward. They did very well, 
making several thousand dollars each in the course 
of two months. They had some fears of Indians, 
who, however, did not trouble them. Nearly the 
whole party were taken sick with diarrhea, and com- 
pelled to leave. Colonel Stevenson, with about one 
hundred of his men, who had previously been mus- 
tered out of service, mined here and at Mokelumne 
Hill in the Autumn of the year. The Colonel drew 
up the first code of mining laws, perhaps, ever writ- 
ten in the State, for the use of his men. A party of 
his was the first to turn the river, the place being 
near the crossing. A cabin was built on the ground, 
afterwards proving very rich, though his party did 
not discover it. He returned to Sutter's Fort in 
December, at the beginning of the rainy season, a 
few inches of snow having fallen at Mokelumne 
Hill. With regard to the report that a deep snow 
fell all over the State in that year, and that he had 



178 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



to 6on d a pat iv of relief to his men, the Colonel says 
ho knows nothing of it; that the; men won' well 
supplied witli provisions, and could have stood any 
siege of snow. Colonel Sicvriisnn, from whom these 
tacts were gathered, though nearly eighty years old, 
is still halo and hearty, his memory having a full 
retention of the early incidents in his California 
life. 

SPUING OF '49. 

Yery many came the following Spring. A com- 
pany, consisting of J. S. Smythe; Michael and John 
O'Neal; Peter Jacobs, a German; Captain Rogers) 
from the Sandwich Islands; Godey and Perry Lakc> 
the two latter of Stevenson's regiment, dammed 
the river near the mouth of Rich gulch. The 
claim did not equal their expectations; that is to 
say, it did not yield a bucketful of gold a day, and 
they abandoned it. 

Colonel James gave his name to the bar. His part- 
ners were two brothers, Yanderslice, one a doctor, 
the other a gambler. Judge Smith, who afterwards 
killed Colonel Collyer at Jackson, and a man by the 
name of Haskell, kept a store there. Soon after the 
immigration got in it was estimated that a thousand 
men were mining on the river within a distance of 
two or three miles, mostly Avith pans and rockers. 
A large meeting of miners was called to drive away 
foreigners, which project however, did not carry. 
McKimm mined here in '49, as also did Donnelly (who 
is now driving a wood team), J. D. Davis and Dr. 
Elliott. McKimm had at one time seventy-five pounds 
of gold-dust; Donnelly had, also, about the same 
quantity. N. W. Spaulding and Company whip- 
sawed out thirteen thousand feet of lumber one 
season, to flume the Mokelumne river. The project was 
determined upon by getting a few cents' worth of gold 
in a shovel of dirt out of a deep hole in the river. 
When, after immense labor, the river had been 
dammed and flumed, and the channel exposed, all 
the gold of consequence found in the claim, was in 
that immediate spot, and amounted to about one 
hundred and sixty dollars. As many thousands 
would not have been considered anything great. 

The river in the vicinity of Rich gulch and Mur- 
phy's was very rich, men taking out with a rocker 
several thousand dollars in a day. In some places 
the gravel would be " lousy " with gold. It must 
not be supposed that all fared this way, however. 
As many men then were wandering around " broke" 
as now. When Winter came on most of the men 
left, some going up the gulches and others to Jack- 
son and Mokelumne Hill, which now began to be 
permanent camps. At the present writing, one 
walking along the banks of the Mokelumne river, can 
hardly realize that the stillness, broken only by the 
murmur of the water, was ever otherwise. A few 
old cabins rotting away on the side-hills, or the relic 
of some chimney, where thirty years since the miner 
fried his slapjacks or dried his wet clothing, are all 



that remain to tell the story of the thousands that 
toiled under a broiling sun, in the ice-cold water. 

The following poem by Charles Boynton, written 
in 1853. will give an idea of the river in its best days: 

TO THE MOKELUMNE RIVER. 

To thee, Mokelumne, the bard 

II is humble tribute pays, 
And should he work but half as hard 

In chronicling thy praise, 
As he has labored on thy bars, 

His daily grub to gain, 
The reader would pronounce his verse 

A very labored strain. 

Of thee, Mokelumne, I sing, 

For I have known thee long ; 
And, from that knowledge, I can bring 

Some truth into my song. 
Four long and tedious years have passed 

Since first I reached thy shore, 
And near thy stream my lot is cast, 

I fear, forevermore. 

For now my pile is quite as small 

As when I saw thee first ; 
Thy early freshets in the Fall 

My bubble fortune burst. 
The rise of water and of flour, • 

And every drink a scad, 
Together with the monte-bank, 

Soon took what dimes I had. 

Time was — I mean in '49 — 

When in each wild ravine 
And tributary gulch of thine, 

A jolly crew was found. 
Who dug up chispas by the pound, 

And spent them fast and free, 
Thinking that gold would still abound, 

As late as — '53. 

But ah! a change came o'er their dream, 

Ere yet a year had sped; 
For '50 brought a living stream 

Of miners to thy bed. 
Old Pike with half his stalwart sons, 

And Hoosierdom was thai; 
While all the Suckers in the world 

Camped on each gulch and bar. 

They turned thy waters from their course, 

Through many a rude canawl; 
They dammed thee, from thy very source, 

Down to the lowest fall. 
Ingratitude personified ! 

Without the slightest shamming, 
Each company was occupied 

In the hardest kind of damming. 

But those who dammed thee, were the men, 

Who never made a dime; 
Thy waters raised indignant then 

Long ere the usual time; 
They burst all dams and carried off 

Toms, rockers, pans, and kettles, 
And left each claim not worth a dam, 

And raised the price of wiltles. 

Mokelumne, thy source is in 

Nevada's hills of snow. 
Ami, when thine icy torrents reach 

The burning plains below, 
A draught from thee is better far, 

The miners' thirst to slake, 
Than choicest cobblers at the bar, 

That ever Bruce can make. 

And though thy waves have ever been 

As free and uncontrolled, 
As when the New York Volunteers, 

First sought thy banks for gold, 
Soon will the Anglo-Saxon race, 

With science, labor, skill, 
Throw over thee their mighty chain, 

And make thee work their mill. 



JACKSON. 



179 



Thy waters will be made to come 

And go at their command, 
Led around to wash their ore, 

Or fertilize the land. 
And even here in Jackson town 

We are expecting soon 
To see Cap Ham* and all his men 

Come sailing down the flume. 

Reader, if Logan + had the time 

He would extend the song, 
But, like his liquor bills up street, 

'Tis even now too long. 
Beneath Mokelumne's dark waves 

Lies many a precious nugget, 
And there the poet's fortune is 

If some one has n't dug it. 

Soher & Parrish's Big Bar bridge has quite a 
history. The first ferry, a dug-out, was run by a 
Scotchman, the price of passage being one dollar. 
Getting tired of the business, he donated it to Dr. 
Soher, who in turn gave it to John Hasley, who 
sold it in 1850 to Pope & Burns for fifty dollars. 
They bought some lumber and built a small ferry- 
boat, charging the same for crossing as formerly. 
Horses were made to swim by leading them beside 
the boat. Travel increasing, they began to make 
money rapidly, seeing which, Dr. Soher thought 
to buy it back; but the stock had now gone up, the 
parties asking twelve thousand dollars for it. The 
Goodwins, Soher, A. J. Houghtaling, and Kenny 
bought it, the latter selling his share for six thousand 
dollars. The bridge was built in 1853, costing twelve 
thousand dollars — the road on the Amador side, 
twelve thousand dollars, and on the other, three 

thousand dollars. 

murphy's gulch 

Was naturally traced up from the Mokelumne river, 
into which it empties. It lies parallel to the great 
quartz lode, crossing it once, and derives its gold 
from the breaking down of that auriferous reef of 
slate. It has been the source of many fortunes, 
having been worked and re-worked for years. It 
is threaded by many veins of rich quartz, not 
extensive enough, however, to justify large mining. 
Murphy's gulch starts on the west side of the lode, 
keeping its course along the base for a mile or so; 
then crosses the lode, emptying into the river on the 
north side. 

BLACK GULCH 

Is the continuation of Murphy's gulch on the same 
side, and, though shorter, has the same characteris- 
tics as that gulch. 

hunt's gulch 

Was also enriched by the breaking down of the 
Mother Lode along its course, and also by the stream 
of gravel which left its deposits on Tunnel hill and 
Ohio hill. This gulch was perhaps richer than 

* Cap Ham was the projector of the" Jackson flume, which 
being four or five feet wide was expected to be navigable for 
boats both ways. A model propeller, with a stern-wheel, which 
should rest on a track on each side of the flume, and thus force 
a boat upstream against the current, was constructed, but, like 
many other brilliant ideas, was wrecked soon after being launched. 

+ Boynton's nom cle plume. 



Murphy's, though somewhat harder to work in con- 
sequence of the great deposit of gravel on it. The 
Tunnel hill gravel has been run into it, prolonging 
its thorough working. If the Dewitt hill should be 
worked off as it is now being worked, the gulch will 
sometime pay for working again. 

TUNNEL HILL. 

This was the largest deposit of the drift, belonging 
to the north and south rivers of the county. Here 
it seemed to have spread out into a large body, most 
of which was swept away by the subsequent glacier 
erosion. The remains of the ancient plain may be 
easily see around the base of Butte mountain, also 
on all the hills around. The great wealth of the 
gulches around Tunnel hill, soon taught the miners 
to look for the source of the gravel; and we find 
that, as early as 1850, some of the miners had 
ascended the slope of the hill, until they had struck 
it sinking bed rock. 

Daniel Haskell and Martin Love have the credit of 
being the first to work the dead river bed of gravel. 
They hauled the dirt to the south fork of Jackson 
creek about half a mile away. The dirt was rather 
hard to drift, but paid from one to two ounces to the 
cart-load. Madame Pantaloon, a woman dressed in 
man's clothing, and doing a man's work, made a 
large sum of money out of this hill; she drove a 
team and did light work at first, and for some time 
was supposed to be a boy. 

The hill was first tunnelled in 1852, by Braxton 
Davenport, B. M. Johnston, and William McLeod, 
who, after one year's labor of drifting, sold their 
interest to Peter A. Martin, who in the Spring of 
1853, erected a trestle work, with a car track and 
chute, extending to the survey of the Cunningham 
ditch, which was soon after constructed along the 
western and southern side of the hill. The second 
tunnel was run by A. 0. Loveridge, in the Spring 
of 1854, which year inaugurated a thorough prospect- 
ing of the hill, which was all claimed, and worked by 
the usual drifting system, until water was brought 
on the hill in 1858, when piping and sluicing suc- 
ceeded the former slow process of removing the dirt. 
By this method the whole surface was made to pay, 
as well as the rich gravel at the bed rock. It is im- 
possible to tell how much gold was taken out, as 
many lucky miners judiciously kept the results to 
themselves. 

BUTTE BASIN 

Is, and always was, a mystery. Butte mountain 
looks down upon it from the north, Tunnel hill from 
the west, and rich gravel hills on the south. On the 
west is the high, rocky wall of the Mokelumne 
river, broken through in a narrow gorge, so as to 
form an outlet to the basin. The west and south 
sides have been very rich, and the whole surface of 
the basin was rich enough to pay for piping. On the 
west and south sides the gravel followed the slopes 
of the hills down under the volcanic matter with 



I NO 



HISTORY OF AMADOR <'<>UNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



which the basin is filled. Efforts have been made to 

follow this down :m<l work it out, but so far without 
success, on accounl of immense quantities of water 
the miners meel in sinking. Not long since a com- 
pany, under the superintendence of C. W. Tozier, an 
experienced miner, sunk one hundred and forty feet. 
At this point there was no appearance of bottom, and 
the water was so strong that two pumps, eight and 
twelve inch respectively, driven by a powerful engine, 
were not sufficient to control it. After expending 
about twenty thousand dollars, the company was 
obliged to abandon the enterprise. The material 
with which the basin is tilled, though of volcanic 
origin, bears the marks of having been deposited by 
water. The descending lines of deposit on the sides 
indicate a former lake, the gravel, following down 
the slopes of the basin, being left at, or near, the 
edge of the water, while the lighter matter was 
carried further on — a phenomenon any one may see 
where a set of sluices dump into a river or body of 
water, and which may be seen in a thousand places 
along the foot-bills. 

Formerly the surface of the basin was much 
higher, but the wearing away of the outlet has 
lowered it, perhaps several hundred feet. 

A project has been started to run a tunnel into the 
basin from Mokelumne river, tapping it three hun- 
dred feet below the outlet. The length of the pro- 
posed tunnel is one thousand seven hundred feet, 
and the estimated cost is twenty thousand dollars. 
James Morgan is the owner of the east side of the 
basin, C. D. Horn of the west side; the latter owning 
some two hundred acres of land, a large portion of 
which was formerly an orchard and vineyard, bear- 
ing the best of fruit, which he sluiced away. 

BUTTE CITY. 

This was a camp on the south side of the basin and 
for a while bid fair to rival Jackson. Only a few 
houses now mark the site of the former city. An 
orange tree bearing regular crops, on the place of H. 
L. Loveridge, shows the fertility of the soil and the 
mildness of the climate. 

BUTTE MOUNTAIN 

Is a landmark for twenty miles away. It is a puzzle 
for geologists, many believing it to be of volcanic 
origin. The rock has the appearance of being 
trachyte, but as aprettythorough examination fails to 
bring to light anything like a crater; the solution 
may be left to the coming' geologist. 

WEDDING IN HIGH LIFE. 

W. L. McKimm and Mrs. Mann were married one 
fine morning, many years ago,onthetop of themount- 
ain. It is not recorded whether the reporters were 
iuvited or whether, if they were, they had the energy 
to make the ascent. The height of the mountain 
(two thousand five hundred feet) and its isolation, 
caused it to be selected for one of the stations of the 
United States Geodetical Survey. Whether from its 



grand appearance, or from the clear atmosphere 
around its summit, or other causes, this mountain has 
caused the outflow of an immense amount of wit and 
wisdom. Some years ago when the periodic epidemic 
for the removal of the capital was raging, R. M. 
Briggs, then Assemblyman from Amador, introduced 
a Bill for the removal of the capital to Butte mount- 
ain. The Bill provided for a sufficient number of 
balloons to be attached to the capitol to float and hold 
it suspended, so that in case of high water or other 
danger, it might be removed without expense. A 
petition for the change accompanied the Bill, signed 
by every voter of the county, or at least the great 
register itself was attached to the petition. The Bill 
did not move the capitol, but it moved the members 
to laughter, and helped to throw ridicule on capitol 
movers. 

Once, when the project for building abridge across 
the Mokelumne river was being considered, a wag 
proposed to construct one of rawhide from Butte 
mountain to Mokelumne Hill. It should be made of 
rawhide cables, laid along the ground and covered 
with planking in the ordinary way. He thought, 
when the hot weather came, and the bridge shrank, 
it would come up taut! 

THE GATE. 

This place is on the north fork of Jackson creek, 
about one mile from Jackson. It takes its name 
from a fissure in a reef of rock, which crosses the 
creek, about twenty feet wide with nearly perpen- 
dicular walls on each side, through which the creek 
flows. The place was discovered in 1849 by a boy 
who ran away from Sacramento. It was not as rich 
as many other places, but uniformly good, paying 
eight to sixteen dollars a day to the man. 

In 1850 as many as five hundred miners settled 
around the Gate. Diarrhea prevailed here as else- 
where at the time. The miners were shocked one 
day by seeing two boys carrying away, to bury, the 
corpse of their father, who, unknown to the miners, 
had died of the prevailing epidemic a day or two 
before. The boys were induced to suspend the inter- 
ment, and in a short time several hundred men were 
collected together, to give him as decent a burial as 
the circumstances would permit. 

Claims were fifteen feet square. This was the 
usual size of claims all over the country, until the 
Spring of 1851. Several of the Johnston family who 
came from Pennsylvania, were settled here. One of 
them being sick, a man called " Grizzly," jumped his 
claim. A meeting of the miners was called and it 
was decided that a sick man had no right to a claim. 
The decision was thought to have been brought 
about by the fear of "Grizzly's" ill-will, and an 
appeal from the decision was made hj a friend getting 
on the claim with a drawn revolver, and promising a 
quick passage to the happy hunting-grounds to any- 
one who should attempt to work it. The decision 
was reversed and the claim respected until the owner 
was able to work. The largest lump of gold ever 










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JACKSON. 



181 



found at the Gate came out of this piece of ground. 
It weighed four ounces and was shaped like a bull's 
head. 

During the dry part of the season dirt was earned 
in sacks to the spring near Kennedy flat for wash- 
ing. The ditch still visible on the north side of the 
creek, said to have been the first ditch in Amador 
county, was dug by the Johnstons. It was but a 
mile or two in length, but the water sold for one dol- 
lar per inch. One evening one of the Johnstons 
being out late, called at a Mexican camp for a drink 
of water. The Mexican drew an immense knife and 
putting himself in a position of defense, said in 
Spanish, "Speak louder, sir; I am hard of hearing." 
The Mexicans, as well as the Americans, were on the 
alert for danger. 

OHIO HILL 

And Squaw gulch were rich places in the vicinity. 
From the former place one man by the name of Bod- 
kin carried away some forty or fifty thousand dollars 
as the result of a Winter's work. Madame Pantaloon 
took out one hundred thousand dollars and then sold 
the claim for twenty-five thousand dollars more. 
This hill was of the same formation as Tunnel hill, 
with the same polished, but not rounded, boulders, 
indicating a river of moderate size as the source of 
the wash. It is highly probable that the gravel was 
never moved any great distance, and that the veins 
of quartz near by are the ones from which the bould- 
ers were formed. 

SLAB CITY. 

This place took its- name from the cabins being- 
built of slabs from Huffaker's mill in the early fifties. 
It had in 1855 to 1860 some fifty or sixty miners. 
The shallow gulches were soon worked out and the 
place is now converted to farming ground. The 
same may be said of Irishtown, once a lively camp. 

CLINTON. 

This place, which is north-east from Jackson some 
six miles, was first worked by Mexicans, who drifted 
under the red hills around the town, making mod- 
erate pay. After the introduction of water, by 
means of canals, quite a number of miners settled 
here. Judge Hugh Eobinson, J. W. Paugh, Sheriff 
of Amador county for several terms, and now a 
resident of San Francisco, L. N. Ketchum, after- 
wards State Senator, N. W. Spaulding, since Mayor 
of Oakland, D. B. Spagnoli, and many others of 
note, were first heard of in Clinton. Some small 
quartz veins traverse this part of the country, which 
probabty have supplied part of the gold found in 
the gulches; but the hills indicate an ancient river 
system, probably the same that left deposits of 
gravel at Pine Grove and Aqueduct City. The 
mines, at the best, were but moderately rich, and 
to this fact, perhaps, is due the political careers of 
many of its citizens. This town was the occasion 
of some talk a few years ago, in connection with an 



election, one man acting as both Judge and Clerk. 
A good deal of eloquence was displayed before the 
Board of Supervisors when this vote was canvassed, 
which is lost to the world for want of short-hand 
reporters. 

!N\ W. Spaulding is the inventor of the famous 
circular shank saw tooth. He was a mill-wright 
by profession, and after mining a few years, returned 
to his trade, which became profitable in utilizing 
the vast forests of the Sierras. Movable teeth had 
been used before, but under such conditions as to 
cause them to be set aside. The improvement con- 
sisted in using a circular instead of a square shank. 
The continued vibration of the saw, incident to a 
high speed, caused a crystallization of the plate to 
take place, it being most intense at the corners of 
the cavity, causing a cracking and ultimate ruin of 
the plate; by distributing the crystallization evenly 
around the cavity, the" plate would endure an indefi- 
nite amount of work. This little improvement 
became of so much value that it revolutionized the 
methods of sawing lumber, the circular saw being 
everywhere adopted, the improvement being appro- 
priated by saw-mill men without leave or license. 
Four different lawsuits concerning this tooth were 
carried to the United States Supreme Court, one of 
which involved costs to the amount of twenty thou- 
sand dollars. An attempt was made to prove that 
this form of tooth had been in general use for years, 
and particularly in a mill owned by Tupper and 
others, in a certain town in Vermont, a man by the 
name of Percival, who was said to have been dead 
for some years, being the mill-wright who had made 
and used them. Mr. Spaulding, with his accustomed 
energy, set inquiries on foot, and found that Perci- 
val, though somewhat advanced in years, was still 
living, and among the pineries in Wisconsin; not- 
withstanding the distance, he was brought into 
court at San Francisco, before the close of the case. 
Every attempt to prove a previous use of the cir- 
cular shank had failed, except in the case of the 
Tupper mill; and, when Percival's name was called, 
a look of astonishment ran over the countenances 
of the opposing lawyers, one of them audibly remark- 
ing, " Rather a lively looking corpse," referring to 
the oft-repeated statement that Percival was dead. 
He had a vivid remembrance of the kind of tooth 
used in the Tupper mill, and, what was of much 
importance, had a veritable sample of the teeth 
then used, which he had kept in his tool chest for 
nearly a quarter of a century. When these were 
produced in court, behold, they had the square 
shank. This settled the matter, the defendants' 
lawyer remarking, " Well, Spaulding, you've beaten 
us." The saws now go to every quarter of the 
globe. 



182 



HISTORY OF AMADOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



« II A I'T EB X X \ I. 
IONE VALLEY AND VICINITY. 

First White Men m lone Valley— First Bouse — First Ranches — 
Judge Lynch Star key 'a Case First Mill — Fun with Griz- 
zlies - Origin of Name lone — Firsl Scl 1 — First Flour Mill 

— First Brick Store Methodist Church— Centennial — Pres- 
ident's Address— Extracts from Poem— Extracts from Ora- 
tion — [one in 1876 — Railroad — Stockton Narrow-Guage — 
Qalt Road — Overflows— Fires — Buena Vista — First Settle- 
ment — Mining— Arroyo Seco < Irant — Dispossession of Settlers 
— Present Appearance — Buckeye Valley — Irish Hill — Quincy 
— Muletown— Miners' Court — The Funny Man — Faithful 
Wife. 

Ione Valley is situated about twelve miles "west 
of the county seat, and is formed by the junction 
of Dry creek, Sutter creek, and Jackson creek, soon 
after they leave the mountains. 

Who has not heard of Ione valley. Whether one 
rides over the dusty plains from Sacramento, or 
descends from the pine-clad hills of the Sierras, Ione 
comes on his view like the realization of a dream. 
None ever saw but to admire. When the plains are 
sweltering in heat, when the scanty herbage is with- 
ering under a scorching sun, Ione is green and 
delightful. The tall oaks send their long, flexible 
limbs to the ground, reminding one of tropical 
scenes. The wild grape-vine climbs to the topmost 
boughs, and, trailing into natural arbors, invites to 
repose and rest. The natural grasses, taller than 
horses or men, attest the unexampled fertility of the 
soil. Rumors of this paradise occasionally reached 
the far-off miners; of oats nine feet in height; of six 
tons of hay to the acre; but the melons, forty or 
fifty pounds in weight, wild oats half an inch in 
diameter and long enough for a fish pole, onions 
weighing four pounds, potatoes seven or eight, and 
squashes two hundred and fifty pounds, were wit- 
nesses whose testimony could not be impeached. It 
is not known that any white man visited this valley 
previous to 1848. The Indians relate that, at the 
time Sutter settled in Sacramento, numbers of 
them went to see the man with a white skin; that 
afterwards they were captured (corralled would be a 
proper term), and driven to Sacramento and made to 
work for Sutter, though they soon after went volun- 
tarily. 

It is extremely doubtful whether Teodosio Yorba, 
or any other Mexican, ever saw the valley even from 
a distance, the name Arroyo Seco being given the 
Drytown branch of the creek by the miners who 
went there soon after the discovery of gold. Some 
of the Weber party in prospecting from the Stanis- 
laus, might have passed through the valley, as it is 
recorded that they found gold on the Mokelumne 
river first, and at every place until they reached 
Weber Creek, in El Dorado county. Sutter, in an 
early day, 1846, got out timbers for a ferry-boat on 
the divide between Sutter and Amador, about three 
miles above the towns, but it is said that his wagons 

"This chapter is largely made up from the Centennial address 
of the Hon. C. B. Swift. When practicable, his own words are 
used. 



passed up on the north side of Dry creek, this route 
being the one over which wagons passed to and fro 
in the earliest days. Lower Rancheria being one of 
the way places. The pit where the sawing was done 
is still visible. J. T. Wheeler of Pino Grove, saw 
this in 1849, some of the partly-finished timbers 
being still on the blocks. J. P. Martin passed through 
lone on bis way to Big Bar, on the Mokelumne river, 
in 1848. At that time a man was mining on a gulch 
emptying into the creek on the north side of the 
town, this being soon after Hicks opened his store 
near Judge Carter's residence, it is said that the 
man made seven thousand dollars with a rocker in a 
short time. There was but one house in Jackson, a 
Spanish cart doing duty as a house near where the 
National Hotel now stands. The first mining of 
which any knowledge can be obtained, was by a 
Mexican early in 1848, before Hicks had pastured 
cattle here. The Mexican told Indian Tom that the 
oro (gold) would buy beef and sugar, which induced 
the Indians to go to work. 

FIRST WHITE MEN IN IONE VALLEY. 

About the last of August, 1848, two men then min- 
ing at Mormon Island, at the head of the American 
river, imbued with that restless spirit which charac- 
terized all early Californians, started out on a 
prospecting tour, and headed directly for this valley, 
reports having already reached them of its existence 
and its great fertility. They entered the valley 
where Dosh's store now stands. Those two men 
were William Hicks and Moses Childers, who crossed 
the plains in 1843 in company with J. P. Martin. 
There were then living here (1848) in an adobe house, 
on the ranch now owned by the Winters brothers, 
the Patterson family, and a man named Edward 
Robinson. Soon after the arrival of Hicks and Chil- 
ders, General Sutter, who was then living at Sutter's 
Fort in Sacramento, came through here with a retinue 
of Indians on an excursion to the mountains, and 
camped on the spot where Sutter Creek now stands, 
which event gave that town its name, and also the 
creek on which it is situated. Andreas Pico, with a 
large crowd of Mexicans, also visited this section the 
same season. 

FIRST HOUSE. 

Hicks built his first house, with poles covere'd with 
hides, on the knoll where Judge Carter's house now 
stands. He and Martin engaged in the stock busi- 
ness, buying cattle in southern California and driving 
them here to fatten for market, the valley being then 
covered with a luxuriant growth of grass, "high as a 
man's head." The business proved to be lucrative. 
In the Spring of '49 Hicks converted his house on 
the knoll into a store, the first in the valley, with 
Childers as manager. His first goods were hauled 
from Sacramento in a cart. They sold all sorts of 
trinkets to the Indians, such as beads, jewsharps, 
calicoes, and — whisky. They received gold-dust in 
exchange. Extravagant pi-ices ruled. A bottle of 



IONE VALLEY AND VICINITY. 



183 



whisky would often bring its " weight m gold-dust." 
It was estimated that there were five thousand 
Indians within a radius of ten miles around the val- 
ley at that time. Previous to its settlement by the 
whites, they disposed of their dead by raising them 
into the tops of the trees and fastening them with 
withes. Robert Ludgate, who came to the valley in 
1851. relates that as he was walking one day down 
the lower side of the valley, he saw something in the 
crotch of a tree which attracted his curiosity, and 
climbing up to look at it, was startled to see the grim 
skeleton of an Indian. 

FIRST RANCHES. .. 

The Q ranch was taken up in 1850, by James 
Alvord, Buck Tarrier and one or two others. Henry 
Gibbons, who was a member of Company Q of the 
Ohio Volunteers, gave the -ranch its name, which it 
will probably retain until the next centennial celebra- 
tion. A D ranch was taken up by Harry Hensner 

and Merchant. They branded their stock with 

the letters "A D," which gave that ranch its name. 
The 2 L ranch, taken up by the Luther brothers, was 
named in the same manner, their brand being a figure 
2 and the letter L. The Q ranch was bought in 
1853 by Charles Green, who, in company with John 
Vogan, established a line of stages between Sacra- 
mento and Sonora, via the Q ranch, Jackson and 
Mokelumne Hill ; and the Q became quite a noted 
place, having a post-office, blacksmith shop, and 
race track. 

JUDGE LYNCH. 

Two Mexicans' were hung on a tree a few rods 
south of the Q dwelling-house, for stealing stock. 
Another was hung on a tree by the roadside, about 
half-way between Dosh's store and the Alabama 
House, by the side of a little stream called the Wol- 
verine. A negro was tied up and whipped for 
stealing a horse. He stoutly objected to that mode 
of punishment on the ground that it would injure 
his character. These transactions took place after a 
trial and conviction of the parties before Judge 
Lynch. The first wedding ceremony occurred in a 
house which stood near J. P. Martin's present resi- 
dence, where William Hicks was married to a Mrs. 
Wilson, a widow lady. The first child born in the 
valley only lived two or three months, and was 
named lone Harnett by its parents, who then resided 
on the place now owned by the Winters brothers. 
The second child born was named William Burris, 
who is still living. The first sermon was preached 
in Andes Courtright's house, which stood a short 
distance west of Mr. Dawson's present residence, and 
is now torn down. No one recollects this preacher's 
name. But he is represented as having preached a 
most excellent discourse, and under its influence 
quite a large collection was taken up. He immedi- 
ately went to Drytown and opened a monte-bank, 
where he was followed, the next day, by Courtright, 
who won back the entire proceeds of the collection. 



It may be proper to state that the present represen- 
tatives of the cloth in lone do not accept that 
example as a standard of ministerial dignity and 
propriety. 

starkey's case. 

In the fall of '50, it became known to the valley 
that the two Starkey brothers and a man named 
Haines, who lived at the lower end of Jackson 
valley, were engaged in stealing stock. They also 
had a rendezvous at the forks of the Cosumnes. 
One of the Starkeys, and a hired man by the name 
of Reed, were arrested and brought to Hicks' ranch, 
where forty or fifty men were awaiting their arrival. 
Starkey was immediately put cm trial. Williams, 
Mays, Robinson, Clark (afterward Judge in Fresno 
county, and connected with a cutting affray at the 
same place), Dr. Jabez Newton (discoverer of the 
Newton copper mine), and others, acting as jurymen. 
It was proved beyond a doubt that he had been in 
the habit of slaughtering cattle and selling the 
meat, though he put in a plea that the cattle seemed 
to be abandoned property and without owners. 
The crime of grand larceny had so far been consid- 
ered greater than murder, the penalty prescribed by 
the statutes being death, although it is doubtful 
whether any court in California, other than Judge 
Lynch's, ever passed such "a sentence, or if so, that 
it was executed, so early had the people begun to 
revolt against the code. 

A motion was made that he should receive one 
hundred and fifty lashes on his bare back, have his 
head shaved, and the letter R branded on his cheek, 
with the understanding that he might be hung if 
he preferred. On taking the vote, all but one 
present voted aye! One person, Robert Reed, voted 
no. The crowd turned fiercely upon him, demanding 
his reasons for voting against the sentence, and for 
awhile it seemed as if he also might be lynched. 
He said that no man could live through such a pun- 
ishment, and urged a mitigation. It was finally 
agreed that Dr. JNewton should stand by and stop 
the whipping when it should be necessary to do so, to 
save his life. Upon Starkey being asked his choice 
of punishments, he replied that he would take the 
chance for his life. He was tied to a log with his 
face down, and his back slipped. A Spaniard, or 
Mexican, then doubled a rawhide riata, and com- 
menced the work. The first blow, made with a 
long sweep of the arm, left two blue stripes across 
his back. The flesh quivered, but no groan escaped 
him. Blow after blow followed with the same cruel 
deliberation, for the greaser had feelings of his own 
to satisfy. 

Starkey was a powerful man, and bore it until 
the flesh was cut into shreds, and the blood was 
dripping to the ground. At every swing of the 
riata the blood would fly off in the air and fall 
among the crowd. At the one hundred and twenty- 
fifth blow the doctor made a sign to suspend the 
whipping. He was untied and his shirt put on. He 



INI 



HISTORT? OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



was able to step np to the bar and take a drink of 
whisky, after which be laid down on a mattress 
in the corner of the room. A branding iron in the 
Bhape of the letter I.', about two inches each way, 
was made from a piece of hoop iron. Hicks applied 

it to the man's face. It did not make a very distinct 
loiter, as the victim turned his face during the oper- 
ation. Perhaps Hicks had mercy on the man and 
purposely made it indistinct. Starkey's wife, who 
was present, wanted to share the punishment. 
Alter it was over, he was mounted on a horse behind 
his wife, and they left for their cabin, near the mouth 
of Jackson creek, where Frank McMurray's house 
now stands. 

The hired man, Eeed, received the twenty-five 
lashes, which came near proving fatal, as he did not 
have the iron nerves of Starkey. 

Many cattle had been stolen during the year, and 
Starkey's conviction had fixed the whole loss on him, 
though in after years it became a cui'rent opinion, 
in the mountains, that stealing cattle was a common 
practice on the ranches. It is quite certain that 
teamsters and others would, at the close of Summer, 
drive their cattle and horses to the valleys to tres- 
pass on the farmers, who might sometimes have 
taken that way to get even. At any rate, a great 
crowd, mostly from the mines, came to Starkey's the 
next day to hunt their missing cattle. Not finding 
theni, they burned his house and voted to hang him, 
which they were in the act of doing when Hicks, 
Eeed, and other parties, who witnessed the punish- 
ment of the day before, coming up, persuaded the 
crowd to remit it on condition of his leaving the 
country. He recovered, and was seen afterwards 
driving a team in some of the Territories. 

FIRST MILLS. 

In 1831 Wooster and the Eeed brothers built 
a saw-mill where J. Farnsworth's barn now stands. 
Eeed was then living on the place now owned by 
D. Younglove. 

FUN WITH GRIZZLIES. 

In going to their daily work. of hewing timber for 
the mill, they discovered bear tracks in the road, 
and the provisions, which they bung up in the trees- 
over night, were stolen by the grizzlies. Woostcr 
and Baker, the latter of whom was a blacksmith, 
made steel traps, and succeeded in catching three of 
these monsters. The difficult and dangerous task of 
tying them was accomplished by E. Eeed, with one 
assistant, They sold one to Hicks, who advertised 
for a bull and bear fight, A great crowd came from 
all directions to see so novel a spectacle. Among 
those who came from Winters' Ear, on the Mokel- 
umne river, was Dr. Brusie, who was then a Justice 
of the Eeace there. The bear, however, died before 
the day fixed for the fight, and the day was turned 
'into horse-racing. They also sold one to the Q 
ranch folks for the same purpose, and with the same 
result, The other one was caged up in a pen on 



the ground where Woolscy's lumber yard now 
stands, but finally broke out and ran away. A Cal- 
ifornia lion, or panther, was caught in a ravine north 
of rone. An attempt was made to take him away 
alive, but the animal struggled fiercely, and died on 
the way, the day being very hot. Dr. E. B. Harris, 
-who built and was then keeping the afterwards 
"Newton Copper Mine House," stuffed the panther's 
skin and made it look natural as life, and twice as 
fierce. It was placed at the head of the chamber 
stairs. Many a stranger, who was induced to pre- 
cede the landlord, has been frightened out of half a 
night's sleep by the glaring eyes and open mouth 
with the frightful fangs, of the well fixed up skin. 

One Indian, trying to get the meat with which the 
trap was baited, got caught and had to stay until 
help could be got from lone, the Indians not know- 
ing how to free him from the trap. 

J. M. VVooster built the first house of hewed logs. 
It still stands where it was built, and is used as the 
sitting room of the Arcade Hotel. The house in which 
Judge Carter resides was the first frame built in the 
county. It was brought around the Horn in 1850 
and is still a very good bouse. A man by the name 
of Baker did the first blacksmithing at a forge under 
a tree below the steam flour-mill. Abraham Sells 
built the first blacksmith shop on the corner west of 
the livery stable. He was bought out by A. Sheak- 
ley, who run it until he was burnt out in the fire of 
1865. In the Spring of 1851, A. G. Lane opened the 
first store, on the coimer now occupied by J. F. Fcr- 
rier's saloon. Eeed, Woosterand Lane built the brick 
grist-mill in 1855, which runs by water-power and is 
now owned by Dr. Cumming. Daniel Stewart built 
the first brick store in 1855. Dr: E. B. Harris was 
the first practicing physician who located here. 

ORIGIN OF THE NAME IONE. 

The valley was named lone before a town was 
started here, by Thomas Brown, who was a great 
reader. He was reading a historical romance of 
Bulwer, entitled " Herculaneum; or the last days of 
Eompeii," one of whose heroines was a very beauti- 
ful young girl named " lone." By one of those 
happy thoughts which sometimes come to us like a 
revelation, it occurred to him that " lone" was a 
most appropriate name for this valley, and he accord- 
ingly gave it that name. But the town itself did not 
escape the fate of most California towns, without 
being christened evil names. It was named first, 
Bedbug, t'ften Freezeout. Finally a meeting was 
called to decide on a name; a few were in favor of 
Wooster, but a majority were in favor of naming it 
after the valley, so it was christened lone City. 
Thus it remained for Bulwer, the great English 
scholar, novelist and poet, to furnish a name for this 
beautiful town and valley. Wooster, after whom it 
was proposed to name the town, was the discoverer 
of the big trees in 1850, having followed some miners 
in that direction who were supposed to be going to 



IONE VALLEY AND VICINITY. 



185 



Gold Lake. He cut his name on one of the trees 
with a hatchet. Andes Courtright was the first Jus- 
tice of the Peace. W. 0. Pratt was the first Assem- 
blyman elected from this town. Mr. Pratt was a 
man who went for everything with his whole might 
and strength. While in the Legislature he either 
knew or thought he knew of immense sums of money 
being expended in the Senatorial election then pend- 
ing, Broderick and Gwin being the candidates. He 
made a very enthusiastic speech without throwing 
much light on the subject however, but he told the 
members that he knew something of it. In those 
days people had a habit of mixing Spanish words into 
their talk. " I sabe moucha," said he. He was known 
ever after as "sabe moucha. 7 ' Amador was then 
included in Calaveras county, of which Henry A. 
Carter was the first District Attorney. 

FIRST SCHOOL. 

The first school was taught by a man by the name 
of Meade in 1853, in a house owned by Eeed. The 
Methodist church was organized in 1853, Thomas 
Eickey being the most active person in promoting 
the organization. He also kept the Irene Hotel, 
and a store at the same time. George B. Taylor 
was the first minister stationed here. He was a 
man of considerable talent, though some of his 
subsequent actions would hardly square with the 
notions of church people. The church building, used 
at that time, was converted into a paint shop some 
years since. About this time several families began 
to exert a moderating influence on the manners of 
the people. There were then living here the families 
of Thomas Eickey, Eobert Eeed, E. D. Style, A. 
Preater, John T. Poe, I. B. Gregory, Judge Turner, 
Phillips, the McMurrays, Spencer, and others. There 
were several marriageable girls, who unconsciously 
exerted a good influence in elevating the morals of 
the young men, who would visit the town to get a 
glimpse of them. Dr. B. B. Harris, the first practic- 
ing physician to locate here, taught a singing-school 
which drew a crowd of well-behaved people. 

FIRST FLOUR MILL. 

The first flour mill was built in 1855 by Eeed, 
Wooster, and Lane. At first it was intended for a 
feed mill but was soon afterwards improved so as to 
make flour. The steam mill was built in 1856 by 
Thomas Eickey, though, at the time of the erection, 
it was but a small affair compared to what it after- 
wards became under the ownership of Hall & Son. 

Daniel Stuart built the first brick store in 1855, 
John Edwards putting up the next, now occupied by 
George "Woolsey. The school-house was built in 1858, 
the upper story being occupied by the Masonic fra- 
ternity. A town hall was also built in 1858, which 
was afterwards used by the Presbyterian denomina- 
tion as a church. The Baptist church was built in '59 

THE METHODIST CHURCH 

Was built in 1862, Bishop Simpson laying the corner- 
stone July 4th, Dr. Peck, Dr. Owens and several other 
24 



prominent men of the Methodist church assisting. 
Some effective solicitation was done and a large 
amount of money was raised, not enough to complete 
the church however, which, owing to reverses which 
will be mentioned hereafter, remains, nearly twenty 
years afterwards, hopelessly in debt. A man by the 
name of Mandel was the architect. The estimated cost 
of the edifice was eight thousand dollars, but whether 
from incorrect estimates of labor and material, or 
other causes, the church cost twice as much, which, 
with interest paid on mortgages, and other debts 
pertaining to it, will make the total not far short of 
twenty-five thousand dollars. 

A celebration was held the same day, Thomas 
Fitch, the celebrated orator, being the speaker. A 
car of young ladies representing the galaxy of States 
was a noticeable feature of the occasion. A circus, 
and afterwards expensive fire-works, concluded the 
day. So many notable events are not often crowded 
into one occasion. 

The centennial celebration was an event in the 
history of lone. It was notable in many respects; 
for the unanimity and good feeling with which it was 
conducted; the general and almost universal attend- 
ance of the people, and the marked difference of the 
assemblage, in character and sex, from all former 
gatherings. In early days a few seats of honor near 
the Chair would have accommodated all the females 
and children who would be present. What a differ- 
ence a quarter of a century had made. As the hour 
for the exercises approached, wagon after wagon 
unloaded children of all ages, and before long they 
took the town. They swarmed through every street 
and lane, and out of every door. The old '49ers who 
had danced in glee around a woman's cast-off bonnet, 
or taken a walk of miles to catch a glimpse of a sun- 
bonnet flitting around a house, now stood aghast 
with the change. The tide had turned. Men were 
now emigrating to the mines, leaving a redundant 
female population. If the quails in '49 or '50 had 
donned female gear and come tripping around the 
miners' cabins, the pioneers would not have been 
more astonished than in 1876, to see the turn affairs 
had taken. Scores of attractive, blushing damsels 
thronged the grounds as if a natural product of the 
valley. The miner, with a red shirt, and revolver 
slung to his side, must now be sought in our Terri- 
tories. 

A procession was formed under the charge of J. 
Brannan. An immense carriage had been impro- 
vised for the occasion in shape of a pyramid, with 
the goddess of liberty seated on the apex, and young- 
ladies seated around to represent the galaxy of 
States. Then followed a troop of boys dressed in 
continental uniform, with military companies, citi- 
zens, and carriages containing the officers of the 
day. The exercises were held in a grove of shade 
trees at the foot of Church street, near Hall's mills. 
Two thousand people were estimated to be present. 






I m; 



IIISTollV OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 

"J. D. Mason, president of the day, opened the 
meeting with the Following remarks: — 
" Fellow -citizens: Ii is unnecessary to announce 

the object of this gathering. The old and the young 
alike know why we celebrate this day. The cen- 
tennial of our nation's birth is a festal day in every 
civilized land. From an inauspicious beginning — a 
birth in pain and sorrow, and surrounded by adverse 
circumstances — our country has grown to marvelous 
dimensions, reaching from ocean to ocean, including 
in its boundaries the longest rivers, the largest lakes, 
mountain ranges rich in all valuable minerals, fertile 
valleys and plains, producing all the heart of man 
can desire, where the humblest laborer can rest in 
the bosom of his family, secure in the protection of 
just laws. Unlike nations of the Old World, no 
millions toil in sorrow that a pampered few shall 
rest in wealth and power. 

"While other nations have marched to greatness 
through blood and carnage, crushing out other 
governments and civilizations, ours has achieved 
its victories over the silence of the desert, the lone- 
liness of the forest, and the rock-guarded treasures 
of the mountains. Her victories are the triumphs 
of peaceful industry, filling the land with churches, 
schools, and comfortable, happy homes. 

"The earth is filled with the wrecks of nations 
that have flourished a time, only to be submerged 
in the surrounding barbarism; but the student of 
history will discover in the upheaval of thought 
which produced our free institutions, the germ of 
a greater, better, and more permanent civilization 
than the world has ever seen, surpassing the wildest 
dreams of the ancients. With the aid of the tele- 
graph, the steam engine, and the printing press, 
remote nations now share their wealth and wants, 
their joys and sorrows. All our surroundings are 
conducive to prosperity. 

"We begin the second century of our existence 
with these substantial achievements and brilliant 
prospects. It is well to commemorate this day that 
our children may learn the value of the estate we 
transmit to them. It is proper to usher in the sec- 
ond century of our existence with bonfires, illumina- 
tions and hymns of joy." 

The Declaration of Independence was read by F. 
C. Hall, after which the Rev. A. K. Crawford, for- 
merly Professor of Belles- Lettres, at the Santa 
Clara College, delivered the poem, portions of 
which are given here: — 

•rfi- 3|C !JC 5fS 2(1 jft 5ft 

Honor, all honor to-day to those men, 

And their labors and triumphs — 

Labors that shaped a new world, 

And triumphs that crown them immortal. 

Rude was the wild they traversed, 

A continent, virgin and pathless. 

An unformed choas of men, 

From the ends of the earth flung together, 

Mingled as quartz and feldspar 

And hornblende are mingled in granite; 

Mingled by fiery fusion, 

To make the bedrock of the nation. 

Fierce were the forces that fought 
In the furnace where freedom was molded, 
" Tyranny kindled the flame, 
But Liberty fanned it and fed it," 
Till the crude mass, refractory, stubborn, chaotic, 
Blended at last in a union of hearts 
And of States in firm compact, 
Welded in blood and fire, established for ages of ages. 



The Declaration made that day 

\\ as mi mere mass of glittering words; 
It set the nation in array 

Against far more than British swords. 
'Tua.s the proposal we .still make 

That all mankind shall here be free. 
Jehovah smiled and said, "Go take 

The right to nationality." 
That smile, scut for our pledges' sake, 
Is now the ground on which we stake 

Our hope of perpetuity. 

Each nation of antiquity, 

When first its life began, 
Gave promise to co-operate 

With God in his great plan 

To elevate humanity. 

And each was made invincible 

While faithful to her trust; 
But when she failed to do her work, 

Her heroes bit the dust. 
********** 

We have passed through some terrible conflicts, 

Our banner still kissing the sky, 
While star after star has been added 

Before the world's envious eye. 

Shall that banner, hereafter, by traitors 

Be trampled in dust and decay? 
Or shall it float on, over liberty's sons, 

Till the dawn of unending day? 

Say, friends, shall it wave 
O'er the free and the brave, 
Till the stars and blue sky 
It resembles on high, 
Into ruin shall roll, 
Like a shriveling scroll ? 

The oration which was delivered by the Eev. J. 
T. White, was somewhat lengthy, and was a histor- 
ical review of the circumstances out of which grew 
the modern Eepublics and the spirit of freedom, 
moving governments to ameliorate the conditions 
of the people. 

S{C 5j£ Tf- 5{I *T" 7P 'i- 

"And here the question arises, Was the Revolu- 
tion, taking all the circumstances of the case into 
revieAV, right? Was it right? This is a very proper 
question to ask, and this is the proper time to ask 
it. I say, then, was it right? Every American will 
answer with an emphatic ' Yes.' Every true patriot, 
no matter in what land born or reared, will answer, 
Yes. Every lover of liberty, in whatever country 
his destiny may have been cast, will answer, Yes. 
The truest men in old England at the time said it 
was right, and protested in indignant terms (still to 
be read) against the cruelty and oppression that 
rendered such a step necessary on the part of the 
colonists. The splendid eloquence of Pitt, and the 
brilliant oratory of Burke, were heard in denuncia- 
tion of such flagrant wrong-doing. The long halls 
of the British House of Parliament rang again with 
the echoes of the clear voice of the great Earl of 
Chatham, as in bold and uncompromising language 
he declared, ' Were I an American as I am an Eng- 
lishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my 
country I never would lay down my arms — never, 
never, never!' And the circumstance that I stand 
here to-day to raise my voice in this matter is a 
proof — a .solemn assurance in fact — that I think it 
was right. Were it otherwise, 1 should not be found 
on this platform to-day. Money couldn't buy me, 
and threats couldn't intimidate me, and flattery 
couldn't induce me to get up here and let sentiments 
escape my lips, either on the subject of liberty, or 
any other topic that didn't find an echo in my heart. 



IONE VALLEY AND VICINITY. 



187 



You will consider it no breach of etiquette for me 
to remind you that the spirit of liberty is neither 
native to the American soil, nor exclusively confined 
to the American people. Wherever on the face of 
God's wide earth there is a true man with a true 
heart in his bosom, the spirit of liberty is there — 
is there inspiring him with a noble love for eveiy- 
thing that is beautiful, and pure, and good, and 
filling him with a lofty scorn for everything that is 
low, and base, and mercenary. My position, there- 
fore, and the post assigned me in connection with 
this centennial celebration to-day, although one 
from which I naturally did shrink on the ground 
of conscious incompetency for many reasons, is yet 
one from which 1 do not shrink, and have no reason 
to shrink, on the score of want of sympathy with 
this day's proceedings, or with the grand object 
which we are assembled here this day to commem- 
orate. I yield to no man in my love of liberty. I 
yield to no man in my sympathies with the enslaved. 
My mission from week to week is to proclaim ' lib- 
erty to the captives, and the opening of the prison 
to those that are bound.' Why should I shrink 
from the performance of a duty so nearly allied to 
that to-day?" 

" And now before quitting this part of our subject, 
let us consider what is the grand lesson taught us 
by the history of the Eevolution. What do you 
think it is ? As / read that event, 1 take it to be 
this: that man was made to be free. God ordained 
every man to be a free man. Liberty is the inherent, 
inalienable birthright of every son and daughter of 
God. The American Eevolution, and similar revolu- 
tions in other lands and other times, have been 
nothing more nor less than man asserting his claim 
to this God-given heritage. All down the ages, ever 
since the primal curse rested upon the race, men 
have been saying here and there, and yonder: ' We 
want you to be subject to us — bow down and serve 
us;' and ever the reply has been hurled back: 'We 
shall not do it — we were born free as you — we shall 
not do it — we shall die first.' And hence on this very 
point have arisen all the battles that were ever 
fought on the theater of this world, between despot- 
ism on the one hand, with its chains for the van- 
quished, and freedom on the other, Avith its glorious 
charter of equal rights for every man, and unfet- 
tered liberty for all. It was to conserve and preserve 
intact this grand principle, this legacy of God to his 
children here below— that marshaled that little 
band of Grecian warriors on the plain of Marathon; 
that filled their hearts with a courage almost super- 
human, and nerved their arms with almost more 
than mortal strength, and sent a thunderbolt of God 
scattering confusion, and dismay, and disaster, 
throughout the length and breadth of the mighty 
hosts of Persia, making Marathon the grandest 
name in the military history of our world — a syno- 
nym for Liberty herself. It was in behalf of this 
great principle that that tiny handful of three hun- 
dred heroic men disputed the narrow pass of Ther- 
mopylae, against the combined hosts of Asia, and on 
gory death-beds, under the open firmament of heaven, 
testified their allegiance to the spirit of liberty, and 
practically said, writing it in their hearts' blood in 
the soil of their native Greece, ' We shall not wear 
your chains; we shall not do it; we shall die first.' 
And they did die, every man of them, every man of 
the three hundred. Died, did I say? Such men 
never die! The world will not let them die. They 
shall live, embalmed in the memories of-the nations, 
as long as the world itself has an existence. It was 



over the settlement of this great question that the 
continent of Europe during the early part of this 
century was turned into an immense battlefield, 
where despotism and liberty were pitted against 
each other in mortal conflict, the victory at one time 
inclining toward despotism, and then again alternat- 
ing on the side of liberty, until on that memorable 
18th of June, there was drawn up to settle the con- 
test the grandest and most imposing military specta- 
cle that the world has ever witnessed — the grandest 
because of the mighty issues at stake, the most 
imposing because of the unrivaled and wonderful 
combination of power, skill, discipline, zeal, courage, 
and extraordinary military genius of the opposing 
forces — and there and then, on that memorable 
Sunday in June, on the plains of Belgium, amid 
smoke, and slaughter, and carnage, and ten thousand 
deaths, and confused noise, and garments rolled in 
blood, the great battle of liberty was won, and the 
name of Waterloo crowned for all time with imper- 
ishable and deathless glory! Such cases as these 
teach us (what your own Eevolution teaches with 
equal force and clearness) that man was made to-be 
free. This, I take it, is the grand lesson to be learned 
from the important events we have had under 
review." 

After the oration the Hon. C. B. Swift, in accord- 
ance with the recommendation of the President of 
the United States, gave a brief history of lone 
valley, the most of which has been incorporated into 
this work; as it will be of interest hereafter, the con- 
dition of lone, as given by him at that time, will be 
added. 

IONE in 1876. 

■ 

lone City contains a population of about six hun- 
dred. Of this number one hundred and thirty-eight 
are between the ages of five and seventeen; two 
hundred and twenty-nine are under seventeen. 
Nine woman and eleven men are over seventy. 
The Chinese population numbers about one hundred. 
It has four churches, two Sunday-schools, one pub- 
lic school, one division of the S. of T., with sixty 
members, one Masonic lodge, one Legion of the K. 
of A. C. Pastor of the M. E. church, Eev. A. K, 
Crawford; pastor of the Presbyterian church, Eev. 
James White; pastor of the Catholic church, Eev. 
Father Welch. The Baptists have no minister here 
at present. Teachers of the public schools, Miss 
Augusta Withington and Mrs. T. Stewart. It has 
four stores, two hotels, one meat market, one brew- 
ery, one restaurant, one millinery establishment, one 
art gallery, six saloons, one drug store, one barber 
shop, two paint shops, two blacksmith shops, one 
harness shop, one tin shop, three shoe shops, one 
variety store, one jewelry store, one cabinet shop, 
one powder house, one livery stable, two flouring mills 
— one running by steam, the other by water-power. 
The water mill has not been running the past year. 
The steam mill grinds a yearly average of over 
two thousand tons of barley, one thousand or twelve 
hundred tons of wheat, and one hundred and fifty 
tons of corn. 

lone will close the centennial year with a rail- 
road completed to her town limits. The project of 



188 



aiSTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, < ' A i.ll '< >i:N IA. 



a road from Gall to lour, was first broached to the 
directors of the Central Pacific by F. C. Hall, about 

the time of the "miners' .strike" in Sutter. The 
company then agreed to lay the track and put on 

the rolling slock, whenever the road-bed should be 
graded. The general depression in business which 
followed Hie "strike," postponed the enterprise- 
Finally, Messrs. Hart, (ioodman & Co., seeing that 
their coal interests demanded a road, entered into a 
contract with the Central Pacific to build the grade 
from Gait to Buckeye. While this work was in 
progress, the citizens of lone called a meeting to 
take measures to continue the grade from Buckeye 
to lone, a distance of six miles. A committee was 
appointed to raise the necessary funds, and to let 
the contract. Nine thousand nine hundred and forty 
dollars was raised by subscription, one thousand of 
which was appropriated to buy the right of way. 

At the close of the meeting, the president cordially 
invited all to be present at the next centennial. 
Perhaps a few may be able to accept the invitation. 

RAILROAD. 

Previous to 1876, lone was connected with the out- 
side world with only the poorest kinds of wagon 
roads. Many persons had advocated and others had 
opposed a railroad. Those who favored it pointed to 
the fact that, with few exceptions, cheap transporta- 
tion aided to build up a country; that, though a few 
local interests suffered, a railroad made markets and 
also made more things marketable. Others said that 
we had a market for all that we could raise now; 
that a railroad from the plains would put down the 
price of grain to the extent, that it would lower the 
price of transportation from the great valleys with 
which the farmers were now competing. This was 
evidently true for the producer, also for the con- 
sumer. But the desire for a railroad yearly grew 
stronger. A ride over the abominated stage road 
between lone and Gait was sure to convert one to 
the railroad sj*stem. About 1872 things began to 
shape themselves in this direction. The discovery 
of extensive beds of lignite, which made a very good 
substitute for coal, which had not then been found 
in quantities that it since has, turned attention 
to the valley. Occasional articles in the county 
papers which were copied into the city papers also 
called attention to the projects. 

STOCKTON NARROW-GAUGE. 

This was projected by Dr. B. S. Holden, who was 
instrumental in building the Stockton and Sacra- 
mento road afterwards incorporated into the Central 
Pacific Eailroad, and also the Stockton and Copper- 
opolis, which was also absorbed by the Central 
Pacific Eailroad. It was advocated by the Stockton 
Independent and the other city papers. J. K. Doak, 
Mayor of Stockton, H. E. Hall, K M. Orr, J. H. 
O'Brien, John Willson, Dr. A. Clark, Geo. Gray, E. 
Lyon, all prominent citizens, became the officers of a 



join! stock company. The design at that time was to 

build a branch road from Linden to lone, but the 
embarrassment of the company caused by the fail- 
ure of the copper mines and the inability to complete 
or maintain possession of the road, induced them to 
re-organize and attempt the building of a narrow- 
guagc direct from lone to tide-water at Stockton. 
Some of tht) coal was taken to Stockton and tried. 
It was thought that it could be delivered in Stock- 
ton for three or four dollars per ton, which was less 
than halt* the ordinary price of fuel. Subscriptions 
to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars wex*e 
made by the citizens of Stockton. A survey was 
made under Schuyler, and the project fairly inau- 
gurated. A favorable contract for coal and the 
necessary land for depot grounds was entered into 
and the building of the road let to W. H. Piatt, of 
San Francisco, for the sum of four hundred thousand 
dollars, payable in installments as the road pro- 
gressed. The route of the road was to have been by 
way of Waterloo, Lockford, Poland House, Zimmer- 
man's creek, Jackson valley, to lone, a route involv- 
ing but few heavy grades or expensive bridges. A 
few miles were graded and a few rails laid down; a 
passenger and two or three box cars were partly 
built. Two narrow-guage engines were shipped from 
the East and brought to Stockton, and, at one time, 
it looked as if the road might be built. Considerable 
money was paid in on the subscriptions, which 
seemed to be wasted in mere show, and finally the 
project fell through. The engines were soon 
removed and put upon the Nevada Narrow-Guage, 
and the half-finished cars upon which a hundred or 
two dollars were expended is all to show for the 
fifty thousand dollars or more paid in by the citizens 
of Stockton. 

GALT ROAD. 

This was projected by F. C. Hall, who never had 
much confidence in the Stockton enterprise. In 1876 
the Central Pacific Company having finished some 
of their main lines, were induced to turn their atten- 
tion to some of the side lines. A survey was made 
and the route found to be inexpensive. It was 
intended to run the road up Dry creek, but some of 
the farmers evincing hostility to having the road pass 
over their lands, it was deflected up Buckeye creek, 
running directly to the coal mines, at what is now 
Carbondale. The road was intended mostly to carry 
away coal, and it seemed that the company were 
in no hurry to extend it to lone. This did not look 
favorable for the prosperity of the town, as the travel 
from the upper towns might be diverted from lone. 
A donation of some twelve thousand dollars, nearly 
or quite enough to pay the right of way and grade 
the line from Buckeye, was made by the citizens, and 
the cars came into the town about December 1, 1876. 
Much difference of opinion exists as to the benefit 
of the road. Freight on goods is somewhat cheaper, 
though not enough to prevent wagons from doing 
some of the work. A greater number of teams get 




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TONE VALLEY AND VICINITY. 



189 



employment into the mountains than were engaged 
before its completion. Considerable wholesale trad- 
ing is now done at lone. The amount of goods 
received by rail is constantly increasing, necessitating 
a recent increase of storage at the depot. Those 
who believe that freshets, drought, pestilence, famine, 
and failures of mines follow in the march of rail- 
roads, will undoubtedly think that lone and the other 
portions of the county have been damaged by.it. 
When the farmers adapt their crops to the changed 
circumstances, and raise such things as the fine soil 
and climate ripens to perfection, such as grapes, 
peaches and apricots, they will probably discover 
that the railroad is beneficial. 

OVERFLOWS. 

The same agency which has deposited the fertile 
soil of the valley, occasionally becomes a means of 
destruction. A large water-shed is at the head of 
Dry and Sutter creeks. In early days when no 
tailings or slickens -burdened the water, the overflows 
were comparatively harmless, but not so when the 
streams are taxed to their utmost capacity to pre- 
cipitate on the valleys the mud, sand, and rocks, 
from a thousand mining claims. The most disas- 
trous overflow occurred in 1861-62. The piles of 
tailings — :the accumulations of years — were forced 
through the canon, and, though pulverized by the 
constant attrition, lodged soon after reaching the 
valley, filling the channel, nearly to the surface; con- 
sequently the great mass of water either eroded 
new channels, or carried great quantities of sterile 
sand over the farms, destroying orchards, vineyards, 
and gardens — the work of years of industry — leaving 
only a waste producing willows and malaria. Some 
of the finest farms were hopelessly buried up in this 
way. A stream of water several hundred feet wide 
left Sutter creek near lone; portions of it going- 
through the town swept across the ranch formerly 
owned by Thomas Eickey, in some places carrying 
away several feet of soil, in others leaving as much 
sand. Houses, bridges, fences, and all improvements 
were swept away. At the lower part of the valley, 
the waters from Mule creek had already buried some 
of the land with tailings. This freshet piled on new 
horrors, adding several feet more of slickens, and 
covering a still larger area. At Dry creek a new 
channel was eroded through, perh aps, the finest corn 
field in the State, leaving, as on Sutter creek, a 
great waste of useless sand. Mr. Scott, an elderly 
and much esteemed man, was swept away at lone, 
and drowned, his body being found some miles be- 
low, after several days' search. 

A great destruction also occurred on Sunday, Feb- 
ruary 16, 1878. This overflow was not the product 
of a long-continued rain, but of a cloud burst, which 
was only of a few hours' duration and limited in 
extent, the rain-fall being the greatest nearly on the 
line of the Mother Lode or along the towns of Jack- 
son, Sutter Creek, and Amador. The shower has 
been more particularly described in the history of 



Jackson. Only one inch of rain fell at lone; proba- 
bly ten times that fell at other points. The nature 
of a cloud burst limits it in its operations, or we 
might have a repetition of Noah's flood. In this 
instance, the torrents from the neighborhood of Sut- 
ter and Amador filled the channel full, and over- 
flowed the surrounding country, lone being for a 
time another Venice. Doctor Cummings' costly im- 
provements were swept away, and many farms were 
damaged. 

These overflows produce malaria, as well as destroy 
land and property. The debris question is the most 
serious danger the valleys have to confront, and will 
be treated more extensively in the chapter on gravel 
mining. 

FIRES. 

lone has been particularly fortunate in not having 
shared the usual fate of California towns— a general 
conflagration. Occasionally, a small fire would 
arouse the population to greater watchfulness. On 
the night of October 8, 1865, occurred the largest 
fire that lone has experienced. The block bounded 
by Main, Buena Vista, Jackson, and Church streets, 
was entirely consumed. The night was perfectly 
calm, and the blaze went straight up in one tall 
column; otherwise the whole town would have been 
destroyed. The losses were : Farnsworth's black- 
smith shop; Stevens' paint shop; Bona Beiter's bak- 
ery; Singer's saloon; Miller's saloon; Ludgate & 
Surface's livery stable, and a barber shoj>. The 
block was soon rebuilt, much better than before, 
many of the new buildings being of brick.. 

In this fire the old lone Valley Hotel, one of the 
first buildings erected, was destroyed. 

BUENA VISTA. 

This is the center of a farming region, and, as its 
name implies, is perhaps one of the most beautiful 
places in the State. Jackson creek here comes out 
of the mountains, and the valley spreads out from 
one to two miles in width, maintaining this char- 
acter until Dry creek comes into it, some five or six 
miles below. The long sweep of hills around the 
valley have the effect of a fine setting, and the 
Buena Vista mountain, with bold castellated peaks, 
varying their outlines with every change of view, 
bring to mind some of the ruins of the older world, 
and make one feel that he is on the ground of 
ancient civilization. The rich, black soil, covered 
with grass as high as a man's head, early attracted 
the attention of settlers, though it is impossible to 
learn who first visited it. It forms part of the tract 
of land granted to Teodosia Yerba* in 1840, by Gov- 
ernor Juan B. Alvarado; though it is doubtful 
whether Yerba, or any Mexican, or other citizen 
of California, ever set foot on the land at that early 
date, as it was inhabited by the Nesheans, Luck- 
lumlas, Mokelkos, and other Indians, who had taught 

*The name is spelled Yerba and Yorba. It is probable that the 
family did not know how it was spelled, as they signed their 
names- with a cross. 



190 



HISTORY OK AMADOU ColiNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



tho native population to respect the San Joaquin 
ri\ er as the boundary lino. 
Cattle were grazed here as early as 1848, whether 

by some of Hick's and Martin's vaqueros, is not 
known; bul the land was claimed by a man by the 
name of Diggs, who kept a trading post, ranched 
cattle and sold beef, in 1849. In 1850, it was 
purchased by Charles Stone, Warren Nimms, and 
Fletcher Baker, all from the eastern part of New 
York. Stone seemed to have been the business 
man of the firm, and, under his management, the 
valley had quite a princely look. They run a log 
fence around a thousand acres or more of land, put 
up buildings, costing, with the then high price of 
lumber and labor, several thousand dollars. They 
purchased large herds of cattle in southern California 
at low figures, kept them on the place until the 
condition of the market or the cattle was favorable, 
and sold them at a great advance. They also went 
into farming, and raised large quantities of barley, 
when it readily brought from one hundred and fifty 
to two hundred and fifty dollars per ton, hay being 
sold on the place for fifty dollars per ton. It is 
said that the yield of barley was sometimes one 
hundred and twenty bushels to the acre, and seven 
tons of weighed hay were sold from an acre at 
fifty dollars per ton, though, says the narrator, it 
was not quite cured. They were not suffered to 
enjoy such abundance in peace, however. The 
Johnston family, as well as others, laid hold of a 
quarter section, here and there, and expensive law- 
suits resulted. An attempt was made to get a bill 
through Congress, donating the land to them in 
consideration of their improvements, which were 
estimated at forty thousand dollars, but Congress 
failed to give them any relief. In 1852, Congress 
donated to California five hundred thousand acres 
of land for school purposes, and the State issued 
warrants for the same to settlers who wished to pur- 
chase land. Attempts were made to locate under 
these warrants, but the land was unsurveyed, and 
no land offices had been created; and all that could 
be done was to record in the county archives, the 
intention of locating them. These disturbances pro- 
duced a dissolution of the copartnership, Baker sell- 
ing out to Stone, and going Bast. A division of 
property then took place between Stone and Nimms, 
the latter taking the western half of the tract. He 
put up fine buildings (fine for that day), and main- 
tained the suits against the jumpers with increased 
vigor, which soon reduced his purse to such a low 
ebb, that he was compelled to dispose of the land, 
although he had succeeded in holding it on the 
ground of priority of possession, Judge Murry, 
before whom the case was tried, holding that the 
log fence, being sufficient to turn cattle and save 
the crops, was an inchoate title, which was good 
until a better one was shown. Nimms went to 
preaching the gospel, and is now (1880) engaged in 
the same profession somewhere in Nevada. 



Stone, more prudent and, perhaps, wiser, suffered 
Nimms to carry on the suits, and awaited results. 
It is said that he kept the squatters off his portion 
of the ground with his lariat, with which he was an 
expert. He would ride up to a beginning of a 
house, throw his riata around it, and in a few min- 
utes the residence, that was to be, would be scat- 
tered in fragments a mile away, fences being served 
the same way. He could not always scare men 
away, however. Jim Johnston, one of the Johnston 
family, commenced building a house somewhere on 
Jonathan Binger's present ranch, which, Stone dis- 
covering, he rode up and commenced swinging his 
riata in preparation for an immediate move on the 
works. Johnston quietly drew a revolver, and 
warned Stone that he had better not make any such 
demonstrations with him. Stone seemed to be of 
about the same opinion, and let the house building 
go on. After the termination of the Nimms suits, 
the squatters, who were on the portion claimed by 
him, bought or left, and this ended the land suits for 
the time. 

About 1856 to 1860 the ranches were generally 
sold to the present size, Alexander Thompson, 
William Spray, Samuel Williams (on the farm now 
occupied by Lyman Tubbs), Moses Hill, John P. Hoff- 
man, P. Y. Cool, William Joiner, Joseph Fithian, 
Mathew Leary, William C. Thompson, J. D. Mason, 
Azariah Sollers, and others, settling in the valley. 
Calvin Dillon, John Kite, Patrick and William 
Sculley, Samuel Deardorff, George Martin, J. C. Ham- 
rick, and Thomas Jones, came in a year or two 
earlier. In 1857 a school-house was built, which 
was also used for church purposes. Keligious meet- 
ings had been previously held in Stone's house. 
The first school was taught by Cyrus James in 1858- 
From this time forward the place had much of the 
style prevailing in eastern rural communities. 

MINING. 

On the north side of the valley considerable min- 
ing was carried on in the early days. The pay was 
generally on the top of the ground, and the working 
inexpensive. Some of the gulches were rich, in 
some instances as much as eight dollars to the pan 
being obtained. When the Turner ditch was brought 
in, quite a town sprang up in the neighborhood of 
Dillon's ranch. George Walker established the first 
store. William C. Eichey afterwards engaged in 
mei'chandising, and moved his store to the corner 
near his present residence, where he traded for a 
year or two, selling out to John Fitzsimmons about 
1860. Fitzsimmons had formerly traded at Poverty 
Bar, but on the failure of the mines there, he chose a 
surer if not more profitable trade, in a farming com- 
munity. He remained in trade until about 1874, and 
was succeeded by William Cook, from Lancha Plana. 

EFFECT OF THE ARROYO SECO GRANT. 

This grant included a larger part of this valley, 
which, like lone valley, was a great sufferer, though 



IONE VALLEY AND VICINITY. 



191 



not to the same extent as much of the land had been 
purchased of the first claimants, in 1857. Some of 
the principal sufferers were Calvin Cole, Patrick and 
Win. Seulley, Chas. Black, — Strobridge, and Samuel 
Deardorff. When the ejection took place the soldiers 
were quartered on the premises of Cole, his goods 
being piled rather roughly out on the common. 
They made free use of his property, killing his sheep 
and appropriating whatever was needed by them. 
It is believed Captain Starr tried to preserve the 
property from harm, but soldiers are not apt to 
starve in the midst of plenty, and the old man had 
plenty, for he was as saving as he was thrifty. It is 
said that one of the soldiers, while dressing a stolen 
sheep, received a bullet in his leg, inflicting a severe 
though not dangerous wound. JSTo inquiry was 
made for the author. 

Charley Black's house was op&ned in the absence 
of the family, and the goods, a valuable organ among 
the other things, thrust out into the storm to be 
ruined. At other places the same rudeness was dis- 
played. It must be remembered that the soldiers 
were not in reality acting under the commands of 
their own officers, but under the command of Her- 
man Wohler, one of the grant proprietors. The 
soldiers disliked the business and did not hesitate to 
avow it. After a representation of the matter to the 
authorities they were relieved from handling hot 
stoves, and other household goods. When they came 
to Joe Fithians he had the United States flag hoisted, 
for Joe was an out and out Union man, and the 
soldiers disliked more than ever to tumble his family 
of little children into the street, but the orders were 
peremptory, and they were loaded into an army 
wagon and hauled out to the boundaries of the grant 
with the flag flying over the wagon, so that it had the 
appearance of a triumphal march. At Deardorff's they 
found the door locked (which they broke open), and 
the cooking stove red hot, which was Mrs. Deardorff's 
system of war. They found means to carry it away 
however. When they were about locking the door 
of Bill Sculley's house, after having taken pos- 
session, Bill shook his fist in the agent's face (the 
agent's name was Clark), observing, " I would like 
to lock the gates of hell on you," and looked as 
though he might make short work of the job then 
and there. Clark called for protection, but Seulley 
was not arrested. The following night Sculley's 
house was burned, no attempt being made to save it. 
It may be remarked that Seulley obtained very easy 
terms when he purchased his property, perhaps, for 
the reason that the grant owners did not care to have 
him for an enemy, for capital is quite as cowardly as 
it is unscrupulous and selfish. 

In a few years the excitement abated and industry 
was resumed, although men rested.uneasy, not know- 
ing when the torch should fire the dry grain fields 
and the fire sweep away the accumulations of years 
of industry, but the law was suffered to take its 
course; indeed, the people of this valley have ever 



been remarkable for their law-abiding character, 
not a single homicide ever having been committed in 
the valley. 

The valley suffered considerably from the overflow 
of 1861-62, getting a foretaste of what slicJcens can do 
in ruining land. For nine years mining had been 
carried on above, but most of the debris had lodged 
in the small gulches, and up to this date no overflow 
had left any serious amount of sand or gravel. The 
unusual quantity of water in that season sent it 
down all at once. The channels were filled with 
moving sand to the depth of several feet. After the 
water went down, boulders weighing several pounds 
were found in the canon above, nine feet above the 
bed of the stream, showing that the moving gravel 
had been that high. The most of the gravel had 
been ground to sand when it had reached the valley, 
but the streams were so full even when the water 
was down, as to make crossing dangerous. The stage 
generally managed to get through, but frequently 
eight or ten horses hitched to the wagon with a long 
rope, would be required to pull it out. When the 
wheels commenced sinking, the only alternative was 
to get the horses loose from the carriage and pull 
them ashore, as they were utterly helpless in the 
quicksand. Early in the storm the creek broke over 
its banks a mile or two below the foot of the canon, 
and carried a great quantity of coarse sand on the 
ranches of John Kite, Samuel Williams & Son, 
William Spray, and others below, burying the fertile 
soil from one to three feet deep with the debris. 
Some of these lands have been partially reclaimed; 
others still produce nothing but worthless weeds. 

Becently the debris has begun to dam up below 
and seems inclined to bury the lower part of the val- 
ley first, though every year the point of deposit is 
advancing up the valley. Since 1861-62 the overflows 
have not seriously injured the land in consequence 
of the almost entire suspension of hydraulic mining 
on the different branches of Jackson creek. Some 
years since, when what is called the Isaacs claim, on 
the east side of Jackson valley, was opened, it was 
feared that the valley would be inundated with tail- 
ings, but fortunately, for the farmers at least, the 
claim did not prove remunerative, and work was 
suspended and the danger averted. 

The " cloud burst " which played such havoc in 
Jackson in February, 1878, dumped the broken build- 
ings and dead Chinamen on the ranches near the 
foot of the canon, the bodies of sevei-al of the 
drowned being found on Mr. Tubbs' farm. 

At the present writing (1881) it is by far the most 
beautiful spot in Amador county. The finest fruit as 
well as the abundant crops attest the capacity of the 
soil. Artesian water enables the people to have green 
crops through the year (although all the fruits and 
cereals flourish without irrigation) and have per- 
petual, blooming flowers around their generally ele- 
gant residences, and altogether the people may feel 
proud of their homes as well as their history. 






192 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Bl 0KB1 i: \ AU.r.v. 

This valley, beautifully situated with low rolling 
hills for a Betting, was inferior to lone for cultivated 
crops, but furnished an abundance of the finest 
quality of ha}-. It was occupied -mostly by stock- 
men. Samuel Hill, Captain Good, I. N. Kay (now 
of Alameda), Wayburn, Mugford, Barrett, and 
others, being the first settlers. The lone & Gait R. 
R. Co. have a sttition here called Carbondale, from 
which is taken annually a great quantity of the soft 
coal, or lignite, which is said to underlie the whole 
valley. Miss Wilbur, the poetess, better known 
under the noni de plume of " Gordon Bracket " resides 
in this valley. She has written some very good lines. 
Perhaps her poem on the death of J. W. Coffroth is 
an average of her work. 

The soil of the valley having been farmed and 
cropped many years with no return, has ceased to be 
productive. In the northern part of the valley 
Addington & Son have, for many years, made a good 
article of fire- brick, also of pottery, out of the clays 
overlying the coal. He was the first to utilize the 
clays for this purpose, his works having been in 
operation some twenty-three or four years. Until 
the opening of the 0. P. R. R., which crossed the 
same formation at Lincoln, quite a trade existed in 
this clay, the return freight-wagons loading with it 
and supplying several potteries at Sacramento. 

IRISH HILL. 

This hill, situated on the north side of Dry creek, 
where it leaves the canon, was a mixture of river 
and beach diggings, unlike Muletown, having bould- 
ers from river-wash mingled with the beach-wash. 
It was also very rich in an early day. Four men, 

Hawley, Nelson, Millner, and (name unknown), 

made nine thousand dollars each in seven months. 
Nelson is still working in the vicinity — poor. Hawley 
went East, and by a fortunate venture converted his 
dollars into thousands. He came back recently to 
see the place where he had made his start. Millner 
was killed by the caving of a bank in his claim. He 
was buried in the graveyard in lone. A hundred 
or more men, dressed in black pants and gray shirtSj 
walked in procession from Irish hill, taking turns in 
carrying the bier. 

The place is still worked, the ground being owned 
by Alvinza Hayward and Stanford & Co., the latter 
being owners of the grant of which this hill forms a 
part. The water used comes from the Plymouth 
ditch, after being used at the Empire mills. 

This town also had its fun with the enrolling officer 
in 1863. When he put in an appearance, some one 
blew a tremendous born which gave notice to all 
the able-bodied to decamp, which was done to an 
extent sufficient to make the enrolling rather difficult. 

QDINCY. 

Scarce one man in ten who lives in lone valley has 
ever heard of Quincy, though they can scarcely look 



up from their plowing without seeing the former site 
of this (own, which is as much a thing of the past as 
Babylon or Nineveh. But for a newspaper pub- 
lished there in an early day, its very existence would 
remain unknown. According to this paper (the 
Quincy Prospector')^ edited and published by Alexan- 
der Badlam, now Assessor of San Francisco, the 
town was quite large, having a Broadway with 
houses numbered; stores, with stocks of general 
merchandise; saloons; doctoi*s', lawyers', and even 
real estate offices. From the paper it might be 
inferred that it was quite a city, rivaling Sacramento 
or even Muletown in its best days. The locality of 
the town is uncertain, but it is known to have been 
somewhere between Muletown and the Boston store. 
Some of our antiquarian societies will confer a great 
favor on the world, and advance the cause of science, 
by sending out an exploring party to dig up its 
valuable relics before the tooth of time shall have 
obliterated them. 

MULETOWN. 

This place was about two miles north of lone, and 
in the fifties was a very lively camp. It belonged to 
the foot-hill diggings, the gold in the gulches and 
hills having been liberated from the quartz veins by 
a wash of the sea, all the gravel having a 
peculiar, polished appearance without the rounded 
form usually seen in river deposits. The ravines 
were very rich. Yancy, a native of the Argentine 
Republic, often made a hundred dollars a day with a 
pan alone. Others made nearly as much. A China- 
man picked up a piece weighing thirty-six ounces. 
He was so elated that he immediately left for home. 
The first store was kept by Charles Simmons; others 
were started soon after by the Dillards, and also by 
a man of peculiar character, named Cunningham. 
These insignificant places, with not a tenth as large 
stocks as the present stores at lone, would sell 
thousands of dollars' worth of merchandise a day. 
Water was brought in in 1854 by the Johnston broth- 
ers. After the ravines were worked, the hills were 
attacked with hydraulic power, and paid better than 
the ravines had ever done. The first hydraulic was 
put up by Wm. H. Fox & Co., consisting of pen- 
stock, flume and hose. The next was by Willson, 
Miller, & Bagley, with iron pipe, then but recently 
introduced. Some of the claims paid as high as one 
thousand dollars per week to the man. In its best 
days, Muletown had several hundred inhabitants, 
mostly Irish, though other nationalities were well 
represented. The peculiarities of the Irish had full 
sweep. Most of those who could afford to, purchased 
horses, and on Sunday would ride out in quest of fun 
and adventure. They were not skillful or graceful 
horsemen at first, and a Muletown crowd could be 
distinguished at a long distance by the flopping 
limbs and furious riding. The pranks and funny 
affairs of Muletown would fill a book. A few only 
will be related. 



."■**■ 



.,„ •& <-■■■ 







Residence & Stock Ranch of JAMES ROBERTSON, near Mountain Springs, 

Tp I.Amador C°Cal. 



TT? — " " -."" 




.-;-:^.o:;.--^ 



Residence of MATTHEW MURRAY, Lancha Plana, 
Amador C°Cal. 



ith. er./rrp// a i/-r 



IONE VALLEY AND VICINITY. 



193 



MINERS COURT. 

In 18o0 the miners had got tired of being taken 
from their work to testify in cases of disputed min- 
ing titles, and a public meeting was called to consider 
the situation. It was finally resolved that all such 
cases should be settled by arbitration; that no appeal 
should be taken; that any party that should feel 
aggrieved should fight his opponent a fist fight, 
according to the rules of the ring, the best man tak- 
ing the ground. It was also agreed, that in case of a 
great disparity in size or strength, the weaker per- 
son might substitute a friend to do his fighting. In 
order not to interfere with the work, the fights were 
to come off on the first Sunday after the dispute. It 
happened that the first trial of this kind fell on a 
Sunday on which there was to be a Catholic service. 
How to proceed so as to keep the priest in ignorance 
of the matter, so that he might not interfere, was the 
question. At a meeting held the evening before to 
make arrangements, it was determined to commence 
the fight at daylight at a spot a ' little distance 
from the town. It was thought that by conducting 
the matter quietly the Father might not hear of it. 
There were several parties to the affair, involving 
several fights, but it was hoped that they might be 
finished before the women and children should 
awake, as the custom was to sleep late on Sunday. 

The morning came and nearly all the male popula- 
tion were present. The ring was marked out, the 
bottle-holders and seconds appointed, and the fight 
commenced. The contest proved longer than was 
expected. The litigants were both plucky. Eound 
after round was fought, still no sign of yielding. The 
sun was getting well up and the women and children 
would soon be moving. So far there had been no 
cheering. The blows had fallen thick and fast, taken 
and given. It is not strange then that the friends of 
each party began to cheer the combatants, until the 
noise aroused the women and the priest, who came 
rushing to the ground, about the time each side 
thought the other side was about whipped. " How 
dare you desecrate the Sabbath this way ? " says the 
priest, addressing one of the seconds, whose shirt, 
from sponging his principal's face, was quite bloody. 
The second, answering for the meeting, replied that 
it was much better to settle a difficulty by a fist 
fight than with knives and pistols, as had been 
recently done at Volcano, where the priest lived; 
that it was sometimes necessary to choose the least 
of two evils. The priest turned away, mounted 
his horse and left the place, without saying a word. 
There was no service that day. It was expected 
that he would give them a fearful admonition the 
next time, but the subject was never mentioned. 
This method of settling disputes involved so many 
inconveniences that it was not tried again. 

THE FUNNY MAN. 

Muletown had a philanthropist by the name of 
Cunningham, who had very original ways of bene- 



fiting mankind. He had been very successful in 
trade, also in mining, and wanted to use his money 
for the benefit of the community. " He was rough, 
but generous and brave," as the poet would have 
it, a good deal addicted to drink, fully conscious of 
his importance, and inclined to be dictatorial when 
in his cups. He built a hall which was free to all 
churches, public meetings, and respectable parties, 
which was dedicated with a dancing party, with 
the following schedule for tickets: — 

Tickets to gentlemen without ladies .. .$6.00 

" " with one lady 3.00 

" " " two ladies free. 

The entertainment was magnificent, and gave sat- 
isfaction to his numerous guests. The hall was used 
also as a school-house, the old man contributing liber- 
ally to the support of the school. 

While the camp was still flourishing, his wife died. 
She was buried without the usual funeral ceremonies, 
which were postponed to a more convenient season, 
that he might get them up in a style becoming his 
wealth. Sometime after, he stipulated with Elder 
Sharp, the Methodist preacher at lone, to preach 
two sermons at twenty dollars each. He gave 
notice of a free dinner to all who would attend, and 
as the style of his entertainments was well known, 
the attendance was numerous. As the old man was 
somewhat wanting in reverence for the cloth, and 
apt to make disparaging remarks, the Elder thought 
it best to take along Father Rickey, and some of 
the elder members of his church, to overawe the 
old man, which did not succeed, however, as he was 
quite ready to applaud or condemn, when anything 
pleased or displeased him. "That's good," said he, 
"that's bully, that's first rate," looking around in 
triumph. "The next sermon will be better than 
this." The Elder continued his remarks without 
being disturbed by the applause. During the ser- 
mon, Mr. Cunningham felt a call from nature, and 
asked Elder Sharp to wait a few minutes till he 
could go out; but the preacher, not being used to 
such interruptions, continued his sermon. Cunning- 
ham commenced raising his bulky form, some of 
Sharp's friends trying to hold him down in his seat. 
He shook them off, however, for his strength was 
immense, and balanced himself in front of the 
preacher, wrath oozing out of every inch of his 
bloated face, his bulky form and baggy cheeks 
quivering with rage. "By G- — , sir, I would like to 
know who is running this funeral!" The Elder 
heaved a sigh and subsided, waiting for the old man 
to come back. Cunningham died, and was buried 
near his wife, nearly a score of years since, and the 
sheep and goats feed where once stood his hall and 
the surrounding town, but the memory of his many 
benevolent deeds will last until the pioneers have 
gone to their final rest. 

A FAITHFUL WIFE. 

In the early fifties, two Mexicans getting into a 
difficulty, agreed to settle the matter in dispute 



I'll 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



with an exchange of pistol shots, tho contest to bo 
continued with knives, in case both parties survived 
the shooting, until one was slain, which was done. 
The wife of tho party slain wished to continue tho 
fight, hut was not allowed. She remained faithful 
to his memory, and once every month, for years 
afterward, lighted twelve candles on his grave, and, 
alone, watched the whole night. 

When copper was discovered in the McNcaly 
claim. Muletown took a little start upwards, but 
soon resumed its decay, ono house after another 
being removed, or falling to ruins. The removal of 
the inhabitants was accelerated by the prevalence 
of chills and fever, supposed to be generated by the 
immense pile of tailings, which cover the low lands 
in the vicinity. The house owned by the Johnstons, 
the proprietors of the ditch, was consumed by fire 
a few years since, and now, naught but the scarred 
hill-sides remain to show that twenty years ago the 
place was alive with a striving humanity. Wood- 
burn, Member of Congress from Nevada, mined in 
Muletown in 1860. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

LANCHA PLANA AND VICINITY. 

Its Early Settlers — Cholera and Diarrhea — Judge Palmer's 
Bridge — Fires — First School — Notable Homicide — Bluff 
Mining — Open Sea — -Chaparral Hill — Growth of the Town 
— Bonita Affair — Indian War — Butler Claim — Decline of 
the Town — Put's Bar and the Fruit Interest — Overflows — 
Townerville — Camp Opera — French Camp — Copper Centre. 

This town, situated in the south-western part of 
the county, where the Mokelumne river leaves the 
mountains, was settled soon after the discovery of 
gold. Though the foot-bills were not as rich as at 
the main gold belt, the gold was finer, more evenly 
distributed, and over a great surface of country, 
enabling a great number of persons to make remu- 
nerative wages. Like nearly all such places, it was 
first worked by the native Californians, or Mexicans. 
It did not amount to much as a town until 1850, and 
then the population was scattered along the river at 
Poverty Bar, Winters' Bar, and other places, Win- 
ters' Bar, perhaps, having the largest number. As 
these towns were in the same county, and intimately 
associated together in early times, a history of 
Lancha Plana will involve, to some extent, a history 
of the other towns, although not included in the 
county of Amador. 

In 1850, we find the towns in a flood-tide of pros- 
perity. Many men, since noted in the history of 
our country, settled here about this time. The 
Dudleys, Al. and Bill, and others who bad a love for 
intellectual strife, but none for hard work, and were, 
consequently, generally flat broke, gave name to 
Poverty Bar. A man by the name of Luffton, for- 
merly a lieutenant in the regular army, who was cash- 
iered in Jackson's time for some irregularity in money 
matters, was also in the vicinity, living with a squaw 

* Flat boat. 



for a wife. Ho was a braggart, pompous, and con- 
sequential, professing to hold his honor in high esti- 
mation, and ready to avenge an insult with his 
sword, which was always ready for emergencies. 
His professions of valor were taken for what they 
were worth, and were finally squelched in a difficulty 
by a shower of flour upon his person, which caused 
a great laugh but no bloodshed. General Stedman, 
afterward a noted soldier in the Union army, mined 
on the Oregon bar. He had been an engineer on 
the Ohio canal, was used to the control of men, and 
was employed by the Oregon Bar Company to con- 
struct a dam to turn the river, all previous efforts to 
make a dam stick having failed. Ho constructed log 
pens, eight or ten feet square, floated them to the 
desired place, and sunk them by filling them with 
rock. Timbers and brush against these, and then 
gravel, made a good dam, enabling the company to 
work the river, which, however, proved worthless. 
The operation bursted the company. Some of the 
cribs could be seen as late as 1860. Gen. Stedman 
would take off his wet clothes when he came out of 
the river, don a pair of overalls, and walk around on 
the hot sand barefooted, like the rest of the boys. 
He was very fond of whist, being a skillful player. 
The Oregon Bar Company was composed mostly of 
Southern men, who brought their negroes with them. 
The miners generally looked upon the introduction 
of negro labor with disfavor, and to this antipathy, 
more than to any moral principle, we owe the pro- 
hibitive clause in our Constitution. When the com- 
pany had determined on removal, the negroes were 
sent out to gather up the horses, but they failed to 
find their way back to the camp, though the party 
remained several weeks to give them a chance to 
return. Koon, one of the principal owners, tried to 
enlist the miners in a search for the missing slaves, 
but they did not respond to his efforts. 

Charles T. Meader, afterwards merchant at Stock- 
ton, and the great copper miner, also commenced life 
in California at this place, besides many more of note 
whose names appear in the course of our history. 
The criminal element was well represented. Sam 
Brown, who, perhaps, committed more murders on 
this coast than any other person, also resided in 
Lancha Plana, though at a later date, as also did Sam 
Marshall, the murderer of Dan Childs, and Ritter, of 
Willow Springs. A company of men from Steuben- 
ville, Ohio, also made their influence felt. They were 
roughs, shoulder-strikers, much like the New York 
firemen, and were the cause of many disturbances, 
generally being in the lead whenever a mob was 
gathered. Most of them perished by violence, for 
the forbearance of men would not last forever. 

In 1850 an effort was made to expel the Mexican 
population. A mass-meeting was called, violent 
harangues were made, and resolutions calling for the 
immediate expulsion of the Mexicans offered. Gen- 
eral Stedman opposed the measure as an unfair and 
unreasonable act, and contrary to our solemn treaties, 



LANCHA PLANA AND VICINITY. 



195 



and probably to his influence was due the failure of 
the movement. Soon after this, his trusted servant, 
a Mexican boy, robbed Stedman's camp of the money 
and other valuables, and left, and was not seen after- 
wards, though a thorough search was made. Some 
persons who were angry at Stedman for the part he 
took in opposing the expulsion of the Mexicans, 
openly rejoiced at his loss. 

CHOLERA AND DIARRHEA. 

Cholora and diarrhea prevailed in this vicinity in 
1850, as in nearly all the towns of California. Poor 
living, the great change of the thermometer, (as many 
as sixty degrees between midnight and midday,) the 
working in the cold water of the river, and the blaz- 
ing sun overhead, with the reduced condition of the 
system after a long voyage at sea, or trip across the 
plains, predisposed the system to, disease, and made 
an easy harvest for the epidemic ; a few days of 
diarrhea and the cholera finished the work in an 
hour or two. There- were no homes, no medicines, 
no nurses, and but few physicians, though some 
quacks, pretenders, seeing a chance to make money, 
put out their M. D., and for a fee of an ounce, gave 
bad medicine and worse advice, which accelerated 
the fatal journey. Hundreds died whose names were 
never known, and whose families, perhajDS, are living 
in hopes to this day, to hear from them. Dr. Brusie, 
then living here, was active in relieving suffering, and 
won the esteem of all by his disinterested efforts, and 
is remembered with kindness by numbers who have 
not kept trace of him since. He is still living, hale 
and hearty, at lone, and can relate many thrilling- 
incidents in his long career in California and in the 
army for the suppression of the Eebellion. 

The first ferry was established in 1850, by Kaiser 
and Winter, the boat being a kind of raft made of 
casks lashed together ; it carried over passengers 
only, the fare being fifty cents. A French Canadian 
by the name of Frank, opened the first store. 

Lumber was worth one dollar per foot; tacks, one 
dollar and a quarter per paper; inch screws, one dol- 
lar per dozen; a sheet of iron large enough for a 
rocker, three dollars. 

Tom Love was the first to introduce the long torn, 
which soon took the place of the rocker. At first 
the water was conducted to the torn through hose 
and short ditches, but the elevating wheel was 
shortly introduced; this resembled the flutter wheel, 
and was ten to fifteen feet in diameter. It was 
placed in a strong current in the river, and elevated 
the water in buckets (sometimes oyster cans were 
used), nailed to the rim ol'the wheel, which went up 
partly filled with water, and were emptied, by the 
turn of the wheel, into a trough which carried the 
water to the torn. As many as twenty or thirty 
wheels were sometimes running near a camp. 

JUDGE PALMER'S BRIDGE. 

This bridge was built in 1852, and seems to have 
been a slender affair, set on bents or posts in the 



river, with timbers reaching from one bent to 
another, much like the bridges which Caesar built 
two thousand years ago, when he made his famous 
campaign among the German tribes. The Judge, 
being a Latin scholar, probably got his plan from 
Csesar's Commentaries. Accounts differ as to how 
long the bridge stood. The Judge says until the 
rains came; others say that it fell the next day after 
it was completed; that only one man, a Dutch- 
man with a horse and cart, crossed on it. As it was 
completed in the Fall, just before the big rise of '52, 
all the stories may be correct. All parties agree 
that it was raining very hard; that he was engaged 
in a game of pedro, or something like it; that a 
great outcry among the Chinamen caused him to get 
up from the table and look out of the door. The bridge 
was taking its departure for the bay without as 
much as by your leave. Not a muscle of his face 
stirred. With his usual serenity he reseated himself 
at the table, inquiring "Whose deal?" That, and 
nothing more. 

After the departure of the bridge, Westmoreland's 
ferry continued to be the only way of crossing 
though a bridge some distance up the river was 
built by Delaney, now a resident of San Francisco 
which, having been put up of green lumber, fell 
when the hot Summer shrank the timbers. About 
1856 the present bridge was built. It has witnessed 
the quarter-century which marked the rise and 
decay of the mining towns of the river, and is likely 
to do service much longer. 

FIRES. 

The first and only fire in Lancha Plana was in 
1853, burning the entire town, which, at that time, 
was a cluster of tents and brush shanties. It is 
needless to say that the loss was inconsiderable, and 
did not much retard its prosperity. 

THE EIRST SCHOOL 

Was taught by James Gould, who came from Vol- 
cano and set up a private school in 1853. At this 
time there were but few families in the place, and 
perhaps not more than ten or twelve children. 

The church was built by subscription in 1855, and 
was used by all denominations for religious purposes, 
and also by the citizens generally as a town hall. 

NOTABLE HOMICIDE. 

This occurred in 1855, and from the respectable 
standing of the parties, was an event in the history 
of the town. A stream of water used for running a 
wheel was turned away, causing a dispute in which 
some high words were passed. A man by the name 
of Norton, who was not interested in the affair, 
came up to quiet the dispute, when Dr. Beck, a man 
of generous though hasty feelings, threw a rock, 
breaking Norton's skull. A general row ensued, in 
which knives and pistols were freely used, without 
any further serious casualties, however. Dr. Beck 
gave himself up, and seemed to be extremely peni- 



190 



HISTORY OK AMADOU. COUNTY. CALIFORNIA. 



tent in regard Lo the matter, even giving directions 
for dressing Norton's wound, and would, doubtless, 
have done everything in his power to prevent a fatal 
result. He was acquitted of the charge of murder, 

and afterwards went to Santa I'V to settle the estate 
of a brothei', who had been engaged in trade, and 
who had been shot in a difficulty. A hasty temper 
provoked another shooting affair, in which he was 
the victim this time: thus ends the tragedy with 
three victims. 

BLUFF MINING 

Commenced in 1850. It is not known who made the 
first discovery, probably several about the same 
time. A bed of gravel, several feet thick, extended 
over the flat and through the bluff, richer than the 
river ever was; it was, in fact, the former bed of the 
river in pliocene times, though, when the river ran 
long enough to deposit such a mass of auriferous 
gi-avel a hundred times greater than was found in 
the river-bed proper; when the stream buried it as 
deep or deeper than the bluff; when it eroded 
the valley where Winters' Bar, Poverty Bar, and 
the flat on which Laneha Plana rests — are ques- 
tions involving many doubtful points. The his- 
tory of Buena Vista mountain, is the history of the 
bluffs around Laneha Plana, and a short digression 
from the recent to the ancient, may be interesting to 
those who either have, or will hereafter, mine in 
this vicinity. Laneha Plana furnishes, perhaps, the 
best point in the county to study the effect of ero- 
sions and deposits. The bluffs and deposits of gravel 
around Campo Seco, must also be considered in this 
history. The story shall be short, though marvel- 
ous, and the proofs such that any thinking man can 
see them for himself in an hour's walk. 

THE OPEN SEA. 

First, suppose that around Laneha Plana all of the 
sandstones are away, only the slate, and rocks of 
that character, stand in the shallow bay, or water of 
the sea, which extends west from the foot of the 
mountains, which are not yet cut and eroded into 
channels as deep as now by hundreds of feet. A 
stream is flowing in here, but, though it has force 
enough to bring in moderate sized gravel, it does not 
bring sediment faster than the tides, which daily 
sweep past the boulder-like slate rocks scat- 
tered up and down the present river, can carry it 
away. Then was deposited the gravel along the 
foot-hills, forming the beds now lying under the 
pay-streak under consideration, and separated from 
it in many places by a hard floor of sand. It may 
be seen under the claim of Mat Murray, on the bed- 
rock north of the town, and wherever gravel lies under 
the coal formation all the way to Jackson creek, the 
position fixing its age. The coal formation may be 
seen under what is called Alum peak. A liberal 
allowance of time may be made here. Above the 
coal formation allow time for a deposit of clay, say 
an eighth of an inch a year; this is during the gla- 
cier period, when little gravel is being brought 



down, all being ground into fine clay. This being 
done, let the sandstones, the fine building stones of 
Laneha Plana, appear; after that, gravel in moderate 
quantities. Some of the hills north of Laneha have 
this gravel, notably around China gulch. In some 
instances, the gold is in paying quantities. 

Laneha Plana by this time was several hundred feet 
under ground. Now the streams begin to run with 
greater force. The ocean line is crowded out miles 
and miles. The progress of the filling is now much 
faster. Gravel, sand, clay, and lava, alternate with 
each other, until the first deposits are buried a thou- 
sand feet deep, and the whole country to the 
cast is a plain higher than Buena Yista mount- 
ain. In Calaveras county is a mountain of peculiar 
structure, that may be a part of a plain a thou- 
sand feet higher than the Buena Vista mountain. 
If it should prove to be so, then we may provide for 
the lapse of a still greater number of years, not 
only in the filling, but in the erosion which is to fol- 
low. Then the present system of rivers was formed. 
They begin to gnaw away the great masses of mat- 
ter which had taken so many millions of years to 
heap up. Little by little, as now, the earth is carried 
out on the plains to fill up the San Joaquin valley 
which heretofore has been an open sea. The great 
masses of gravel deposited in the mountains, like that 
at Mokelumne Hill and Jackson, in fact, covering the 
greater part of the country, is now being moved and 
re-adjusted. The gravel hills around Campo Seco 
and Camanche are now one after another deposited, 
the streams eroding, in all instances, more than they 
deposit, wearing away and concentrating the gravel 
and the gold. Now the rivers are beginning to find 
their present channels, as they wear deeper and 
deeper into the sandstones and rocks, for they have 
again struck the slate rocks. They have now worn 
down far below the glacier erosions, and now flow in 
saw-like channels, instead of the long, smooth val- 
leys of the time when such vast masses of gravel 
were on the move. The volcanoes have now been 
quiet for ages. The whole country is comparatively 
in a state of repose. The bluff banks by Lockford 
and the Poland House may begin to show, as the 
stream is not pressed with sand and gravel from the 
mountains. Having no serious work on hand, the 
river may commence eroding a valley in the former 
deposits, making room for the present bottom-lands. 
When this condition has arrived, we may look for 
the river to reach the level of the big gravel deposits 
forming the base of the bluffs. How many years 
the river was wearing into the sandstones, into the 
hard clays, carrying them off ounce by ounce, perhaps 
only as muddy water, none can tell. It had to make 
room for the gravel; then had to have uninterrupted 
ages to bring the gravel down from the deposits in 
the mountains. Running in a nearly straight course 
towards the plains, it slowly piled up acres of gravel, 
perhaps a hundred, and for some unexplained reason 
buried it up in sand again, until a flat appears, of 



LANCHA PLANA AND VICINITY. 



197 



which the bluff where Maroon's house, Judge Palm- 
er's, and others are situated, is a relic. . This piling 
up of fine quicksand, must also have been the work 
of ages. It will be obvious to any one, that a slight 
difference either in the obstruction in carrying 
off of the debris from the mountains above, or an 
increase in the erosive and carrying power of the 
mountain streams, would produce a change in the 
lines of deposit in the valley. 

It might have occurred by a change of channel, as 
there is much to show that the Mokelumne river has 
occupied various channels; for instance, it once ran 
through Story's chain south of the bluff through 
which he tunneled; also, at the Metzer ranch, it ran 
in a channel north of the present one. The next 
change was the erosion of the present channel and 
the wearing away of a large portion of the bluff, 
leaving the flat where the town was standing in 1860, 
now covered with alfalfa patches, vineyards and 
orchards. What a period of time to contemplate! 
Yet all these changes are recorded in rocky bluffs 
around the town, in such characters that all may 
read who wish to. One step will lead to another 
until the whole will be like an open book. 

After this somewhat lengthy digression, the bluffs 
may claim attention. The claims were very rich. 
In many instances the proceeds of a week's drifting 
would pay the whole expense of opening. The firt>t 
to go down met with a great amount of water. It 
was feared for some time that the water could not 
be controlled, but when several companies began to 
work, the water was so reduced that it gave but lit- 
tle trouble. William Cook had a claim which paid a 
hundred dollars a week to the man. Kidd, Porter 
& Lyman had a claim near where Judge Palmer's 
residence now is, which paid even better than that. 
Krail, Perkins & Barnett also had a good claim in 
the same vicinity. The Murray brothers, Wad- 
dell brothers, Phil. Kennedy, McCarty & Hinkley, 
Christie, English & Mclntyre, Walters, John Cook, 
Calvin Cole, also mined on the bluff' with success, as 
did many others. The mines on the hill north-east 
of the town were also discovered about this time 
and many moderate fortunes were made. This 
place was called 

CHAPARRAL HILL. 

Miner Frink, afterwards member of the Assembly, 
Joseph Cochran, Mat. Leary, Patrick O Keefe, Ned 
and Jerry McGraw, Geo. Wagner, who was Asso- 
ciate Judge and member of the Assembly, etc., Joe 
Hall, Geo. Sitzer and brother (the latter being killed 
in his mine), Tom Love and Joe Clark (fighting 
Joe), all had good claims here. The town began to 
grow. Restaurants, saloons, breweries, stores, hotels, 
and other institutions common to California mining- 
towns, also came and flourished as long as the mines 
lasted. Several substantial buildings, made of fine 
sandstone resembling granite, with fire-proof shut- 
ters and doors, still attest the prosperity of the years 
of the bluff diggings. Main street, running towards 



_the river, had the best buildings and largest stores, 
some of which would do credit to a city. Among 
these were those of J. W. D. Palmer & Co., John 
Cook, William Cook, Holman & Co., Nye & Co. The 
building of the Cooks was removed to Buena Vista 
some five or six years ago and the place mined out 
by Chinamen. Palmer & Co. were at the foot of the 
street nearest the river. Chinatown, also a large 
settlement, was between Main street and the river. 
From Palmer's present store to the bluff was a solid 
line of buildings. The bluff was also laid off into 
streets and was considerably built up, as was the hill 
north of the town. In its best days Lancha Plana 
had perhaps a thousand inhabitants. Luring this 
period many shafts were sunk in the hills around 
Lancha Plana. A line of holes were sunk north- 
ward towards the Boston ranch to connect with the 
French Camp lead. In some places considerable 
gold was found, and the blue clay above the gravel 
led the miners to think they had discovered the Blue 
Lead. The blue clay was eventually found to indi- 
cate coal. Many of the prospectors sunk through 
the half-charred, half-decayed piles of drift-wood and 
encountered noxious gases, destructive to life. In 
one of these shafts near the big reservoir, a man, on 
going down, was overcome and fell insensible to the 
bottom of the shaft. Men had been crushed by fall- 
ing banks of earth and had met death in various 
ways, but the fire-damp was a new fiend, and when it 
was known that a man was killed with it, and that 
his body could not be recovered, the whole popula- 
tion left their work for the scene of the accident. 

The shaft was about one hundred feet deep, and 
the pile of dirty, black, decayed vegetable material, 
with a disagreeable smell, indicated too well the 
nature of the gas which had destroyed the man's 
life. Dr. Tillson, a druggist, asserted that he could 
saturate a handkerchief with a liquid that would 
render the gas innocuous. Thus assured, a man vol- 
unteered to go down slung in a rope, so that in case 
of being overcome, he could be hauled out before 
fatal results should happen. He succeeded in fasten- 
ing a rope to the body, and it was hoisted to the 
surface. Life was of course extinct, as the body had 
been in the shaft some hours. 

A tunnel was run under Alum peak all the way in 
a coal formation. A man by the name of Packard 
ran a tunnel into the hill in which the Waddell broth- 
ers afterwards developed a coal mine. The nature 
of this deposit is fully treated in the chapter on 
coal. Suffice it to say here that probably Lancha 
Plana has the largest and best deposit in the county. 

Lancha Plana had its largest population about 
1860. At this time the Dispatch, now of Jackson, 
was running here under the charge of Heckendorn & 
Payne, and was quite a lively paper. From 1865 
the town gradually decayed. The population left 
after the working out of the bluffs; the houses fell 
to ruins or were removed, and for many years the 
voting population has been less than one hundred. 



IDS 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 






The vines and trees make a nearly successful effort 
to cover up the scars caused by mining. 

Among i In- first to develop the fruit business, were 
A. F. Northrup and Captain Kid. The former had 
an orchard OB I ho flat, where Mat Murray's claim 
now is, early as IS")!). In lSlil it became quite a 
place of resort, and was the source of much profit. 
The extraordinary productiveness of the land, as 
well as the excellent quality of the fruit raised, 
induced a great man}- to embark in that business. 
For some miles down the river as well as at Lancha 
Plana, fruit has for many years formed a heavy 
item in the production. Kientz, Lucas, Foster, De- 
Bolt, Northrup, Goodings, Van Zant, Bamert and 
others, have places noted for fine fruit. 

put's bar. 

This was discovered in 1853 by Putnam, now resid- 
ing at lone. It was a "wage-claim," never having 
been very rich, though in 1855 to 1860 it had several 
hundred miners, mostly Chinamen. In an early day 
it was found to be good for raising watermelons, in 
fact, a "bonanza." Old Man Borden, as he was called, 
would bring them into market on the Fourth of July 
and get a great price for them. This was weeks 
earlier than lone valley could do it, and eventually 
the river melons monopolized the market. A large 
vineyard was planted by Palmer and "VVoolsey below 
Put's Bar, but owing to the depression in the wine 
business, it was mostly dug up some years since. 
Table grapes have been found to be the most profita- 
ble. The quantity of ground suited either to the 
wine or table grape, is unlimited. 

OVERFLOWS. 

Lancha Plana and vicinity have suffered some from 
overflows. In 1861-62 the Mokelumne river rose 
nearly thirty feet, sweeping off the bridge between 
Lancha Plana and Poverty Bar and burying up the 
fine peach orchard owned by A. F. Northrup. The 
river took a "shear" against Poverty Bar, on the 
opposite side, and wore away nearly all the ground 
on which the town stood. Stores, dwellings, and 
barns, one after another, would be undermined and 
tumble into the stream, taking passage for the tules 
around Stockton. The town never recovered from 
the blow. Lancha being on higher ground, escaped. 

THE BONITA AFFAIR. 

This occurrence was on the south side of the river, 
and, consequently, in Calaveras county; but, as the 
people engaged in it were from both sides, it is prop- 
erly a matter of record in this book. In 1852, during 
the flush times in the vicinity of Lancha Plana, the 
miners received notice that a greaser was to be hung: 
and a large number of men, perhaps a thousand, soon 
came together. The crime of which the Mexican 
boy was said to be guilty was of unmitigated atroc- 
ity. A Portuguese family in the vicinity had a beau- 
tiful little girl, four or five years of age, named 
Bonita, who was a general favorite with the miners. 



Every one- had a kind word for her, which she repaid 
with loving smiles. One day it was announced that 
she was lost. A general search was instituted, and 
the hills, ravines, thickets, and old shafts, in the 
neighborhood, were thoroughly searched. The 
worst fears with regard to her were realized. After 
some hours' search she was found in a thicket, insen- 
sible, with every appearance of having been outraged. 
Some way, suspicion was fastened on a Mexican 
boy of twenty or such a matter, who had formerly 
been in the employ of the father of the child. He 
had been seen fondling the child but a short time 
before her disappearance. Suspicion soon turned to 
accusation, and that to conviction, for the crime 
was of such a character that few men could remain 
cool enough to listen to reason. There was sense of 
justice enough to give the form of a trial, and a jury 
of twelve men was selected, ostensibly to try the 
accused, but really to confirm the popular verdict of 
guilty. Only a portion of the names can be recol- 
lected : A. Norton and Jefferson Tarr, of Amador 
county; Alfred Small, Captain Allen, and Captain 
Knowlton, residences unknown; and B. S. E. Will- 
iams, now in the employ of the Central Pacific 
Railroad at Oakland. A man by the name of Beaty 
volunteered to act as counsel for the accused.. 
The jury sat around a miner's table, under a large 
tree, the spectators crowding aixmnd and interfer- 
ing very much with the comfort and deliberations of 
the jury. The " Steubenville boys " were anxious to 
commence the hanging, and impatiently waited the 
taking of the testimony, and the deliberations of 
the jury. The voluntary attorney, Beaty, proceeded 
to cross-question the witnesses after the usual man- 
ner of lawyers. One of the "Steubenville boys" backed 
up and took what they call the rump lock on him, 
i. e., took him by the seat of his broadcloth pants 
and dragged him, squirming and kicking, out of the 
court, leaving a vacancy in the covering of his rear 
part which compelled a hauling off to repair damages. 
This rough though comical treatment of the law- 
yer was not unacceptable to the jury, who were per- 
fectly competent to question the witnesses for them- 
selves, and had been rather annoyed by his officious 
conduct. 

As the trial proceeded, it appeared that there was 
no evidence to prove the connection of the boy with 
the outrage; that he was asleep on a porch during the 
time of the absence of Bonita, though he joined in 
the hunt after the alarm was raised, and they 
brought in a verdict of "not guilty." This was not 
what the crowd had come for. They had come to 
see a hanging and meant to see it too, especially the 
Steubenville boys. One of their number had been 
killed by a Mexican, not long before, in an affray in 
a dance house, and they were ready to hang all 
greasers on the slightest excuse. The crowd soon 
began to boil. The larger part had been partaking 
freely of whisky, and were in no mood to listen 
to reason or be thwarted. Some of the jurors 



LANCHA PLANA AND VICINITY. 



199 



(who, by the way, had early become alarmed at the 
quantities of whisky which had been drunk, and 
resolved to drink nothing and were consequently 
sober), were roughly handled. Captain Knowlton 
was knocked down for asserting the iunocence of 
the boy. It was now evident that a first-class riot 
was impending. It was hundreds maddened with 
whisky against dozens only of sober men. The 
sober men stood around the intended victim, and 
protested against the hanging. A .proposition was 
made to give him a new examination before Dr. 
Brusie, the Justice at Winters' Bar. The doctor was 
a man high in the esteem of the community. This 
brought a few more men to the side of the jurymen. 
Taking advantage of an opening in the crowd, the 
boy was hustled into a wagon and hurried away to 
Winters' Bar, and an examination commenced; but 
the crowd soon came up, more violent than before. 
Though the evidence against the boy amounted to 
nothing, it was evident to the Justice that the only 
chance to save his life was to send him to jail. A 
powerful man by the name of Cunningham was 
deputized to take charge of him. It was now getting 
nearly night, and the rioters feared they were about 
to lose their prey. Some dozen or more, among 
whom was Tom Love, resolved to drag him out and 
shoot him, and with drawn pistols rushed into the 
crowd. The boy retreated behind the burly form of 
Dr. Brusie, who was thus placed in an interesting 
situation. He was thoroughly aroused by this time. 
Shaking his fist in thefaces of the rioters, he shouted: 
" I will have you all arrested for this." Though so 
many pistols were pointed towards him in the effort 
to cover the boy, the mob had no intention of kill- 
ing him. They rather admired his pluck, knowing 
him to be in the line of his duty, and furthermore, 
to have injured him would have arrayed the whole 
country against them. Two of the mob succeeded in 
getting the boy, and were leading him out, a man on 
each side, when the drawn pistols pointing towards 
them caused one of the men to let go the boy, who 
immediately swung to the rear of the other man who 
was holding him, crying to Manuel, the lather of the 
girl: " Shoot him! shoot him! " At this point of the 
affair, Williams, who had from the first to the last 
used every effort to save the boy's life, shoved him 
into the crowd, so that to shoot would endanger the 
life of the rioters, as well as others. Cunningham 
now tried to get the boy away. A scuffle ensued and 
Cunningham was thrown to the ground. While the 
attention of the crowd was engaged, two men, 
Williams being one, rushed the boy over the bank of 
the river, which here was ten or twelve feet high, 
got him out of sight, and conducted him to a store 
owned by a man by the name of Waters, who con- 
cealed him in a back room. When the row over 
Cunningham had subsided, and the would-be exe- 
cutioners had time to look around, the intended 
victim was gone. It was now moonlight and a 
search was made. Dr. Brusie had deputized Waters 



to take the boy away to Mokelumne Hill, which he 
intended to do the next morning; but a party of 
the rioters getting on his trail, and shortly after- 
ward entering his store, he took the boy out through 
a rear entrance and safely made his way with him to 
Mokelumne Hill, where he was detained until the 
session of a Grand Jury, when, no evidence appear- 
ing against him, he was set at liberty. 

INDIAN WAR. 

This affair occurred in the Summer of 1859. A 
large number of Indians, variously estimated at from 
three to six hundred, had been holding a fandango 
or war dance, on the hill north of the town. Some 
were from the northern part of the county, some 
from Calaveras, and quite a large number from 
Tuolumne. The festivities were mostly over, and 
many of the Indians had gone. An American, not 
much above an Indian in appearance, and, probably, 
far below one in character, claimed a horse which 
one of the Indians had in his possession. The Indian 
declined giving it up, alleging that he had bought 
it of the white man, which, on inquiry, afterwards 
proved to be true, or, at least, had won it in a game 
of cards. The white man employed Miles Hunts- 
man, the Constable, to get the horse for him. It 
does not seem that the Constable had any writ to 
replevy the horse, or that he even made a demand 
for it, but went as an individual, took the horse and 
was leading him off, when the Indians commenced 
shooting arrows at him, and the claimant of the 
horse. Huntsman returned the fire with his revolver, 
which he emptied of the six shots, and then retreated; 
by this time all the Indians were after him in full 
. cry, the arrows flying in clouds. He fell, pierced 
by several arrows, not far from the junction of the 
Winters and Lancha Plana road. When it was 
learned in the town that Miles was killed, every 
one that could raise a fire-arm started in the pur- 
suit of the Indians, who commenced dispersing with 
all possible rapidity. The Jackson valley Indians, 
who had always been peaceably inclined, claimed 
protection at the houses of some who had employed 
them for washing, and other purposes, and would 
not join in the stampede, and probably saved their 
lives by so doing. Some of the Indians remaining 
near the camp were pursued, and one was shot near 
Waddell's ranch; he died game, shooting his arrows 
after he was shot through and through, and unable 
to stand on his feet. Great numbers had forded the 
river, and others had crossed by the bi'idge. These 
were also pursued, and as a great many shots were 
heard, it was supposed that numbers had been killed. 

Exaggerated stories prevailed that day and even, 
ing with regard to the number slain, but careful 
inquiry limits the casualties to two Indians slain — 
one at Waddell's ranch, and one near Campo Seco, 
who was shot by a sailor who was pursuing him, 
and who got shot in turn by the Indian — and one 
Indian's leg broken by a ball from the revolver of 
Huntsman in the beginning of the fight, and the 



200 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



two white men mentioned, though many valiant (?) 
men boasted of having slain scores. One Wallace, 
a Canadian (wo hope ho was no descendant of Sir 
William i, was found shooting at a squaw and some 
little children, who, when overtaken in the pursuit, 
sat down and buried their faces in their laps, the 
Indian token of submission, which, however, did not 
prevent the valorous man from emptying his revolver 
on them. Their escape was due to his nervous feel- 
ings, or their being in a hollow below him, which 
caused him to over shoot. He was stopped in his 
shooting by Tom Love, who, though on the war- 
path against the Indians, had no heart for shooting 
squaws. The wounded Indian was taken to the 
office of Drs. Boarman and Schoneman, and his leg 
amputated, some squaws acting as nurses. He 
recovered, and has become a famous beggar, in fact 
a nuisance, thrusting his wooden leg forward every- 
where as a reason for charity. It has been to him 
quite a fortune. 

MIDNIGHT SCARE. 

While the extravagant reports of numbers slain 
were still believed, a report got into circulation that 
three hundred Tuolumne Indians were nearing Lan- 
cha Plana with a determination to avenge the 
slaughter of the Indians; the place was to be wiped 
out. It was impossible to learn the origin of the 
rumor, but it was believed, and runners were sent to 
all the houses on the outskirts of the town, and the 
people all brought in. The stone stores were con- 
sidered as the best for a defense, and as many as 
could be were quartered in these buildings. All the 
arms were collected, and put in the best condition. 
A military company was formed, and R. W. Palmer, 
who claimed some knoAvledge of military affairs, was 
put in command, Dr. Tillson being second officer. 
The men were drilled to charge and retreat, to act 
as skirmishers or advanced pickets, and were 
marched and countermarched until it was thought 
they would do to trust as soldiers. Their arms were 
then inspected, and the amount and quality of the 
ammunition ascertained. Some of the arms were 
woefully deficient. Tim Conway had a little pistol, 
but it had no lock. 

"What do you expect to do with that?" says 
Captain Palmer. 

"Oh, be jabers! won'tlmakeit hot for the In- 
dians when I touch it off with a match ?" 

He thought he was " good for one Indian, any 
how." Guards were stationed at the different cross- 
ings of the river, and at all points where there was a 
probability of being attacked. Instructions were 
given to the women and children to put out the 
lights and lie flat on the floor, when the shooting- 
commenced— a proposition that some of the more 
nervous were in favor of putting into practice at once. 
Mrs. Boarman, who seemed to have some of her 
husband's coolness, or which is better some of her 
own, remarked that, " We might as well sit up until 
the Indians come." Dr. Tillson, who was but recently 



married, made his wife a very affecting good-bye. 
" My dear wife, my country calls, and I must obey. 
I trust that we may meet again. Good-bye, my 
dear." It is said that she urged him to take a frying- 
pan to hold before his face when the arrows began to 
fly. She was very proud of the Doctor's handsome 
face, and did not want it disfigured. The popula- 
tion did not all muster at the drum-beat to defend 
the town. John Sprague, who owned a livery stable, 
got out a buggy and team, took his wife and chil- 
dren, and started as fast as horse flesh could go, and 
did not stop until he reached Stockton, alarming the 
whole country on the way. At Poverty Bar, as 
Milton said of Satan after he awoke from his sleepy 
drench, 
" He called so loud that all the hollow depths of Hell resounded." 

" Turn out! Turn out, for God's sake! The In- 
dians are murdering everybody at Lancha Plana." 

Bill Morrow got out his team and buggy, and' went 
after the Wheeler girls, and ran away with them, 
hardly giving them time to dress. At Comanche, 
Sprague gave the alarm also, and for awhile confusion 
reigned there. Morning came at last, but no Indians, 
though during the day the Tuolumne chief, a vener- 
able and dignified Indian, came back to inquire into 
the shooting, which had taken place after he had 
left the fandango. He said that if any of his young 
men were guilty, they should be sun*endered for 
punishment, and two or three days afterwards, a 
couple of young Indians were sent up, securely tied, 
for the Lancha folks to do with as they thought 
best. The panic was over, and the two Indians were 
sent to Jackson for trial; but no evidence against 
them • appearing, they were set at liberty, and thus 
ended the Indian war. At this day it is impossible 
to form any correct conclusion as to the cause of the 
alarm, or whether there was any cause at all. It 
seems so much like a burlesque that we are some- 
times ready to conclude that it was a huge Irish joke, 
the Irish element being in the ascendency in the 
town at that time. If any race of people could have 
a bit of fun out of such a matter, it would be the 
Irish. Captain Palmer, who lives at Jackson, upon 
being questioned as to the three hundred Indians 
marching upon Lancha Plana, says, "Certainly; 
they would have attacked the town if we had not 
prepared to defend it." But who saw them? 

ORIGIN OF PANICS. 

Lest some of our friends might undervalue them- 
selves while remembering these events, it may be 
well enough to make an extract from Washington 
Irving's "Life of Washington," page 196, volume I: — 

" In the meantime the panic and confusion in- 
creased. On Sunday an express hurried into town 
breathless with haste and terror. The Indians, he 
said, were but twelve miles off ; they had attacked 
the house of Isaac Julian; the inhabitants were fly- 
ing for their lives. Washington immediately ordered 
the town guards to be strengthened ; armed some 
recruits who had just arrived, and sent out two 




RES I DENCE " f J. D.STOLCKEN. 

VOLCANO AMADOR CO.CAL 



■ ■ is 



•■'■h' 






HJS 



'':'% 



s^lfe 




RESIDENCE AND RANCH OF J.E.PETTlTT. 
PLYMOUTH, AMADOR C? CAL. 



LANCHA PLANA AND VICINITY. 



201 



scouts to reconnoiter the enemy. It was a sleepless 
night at Winchester. Horror increased with the 
dawn ; before the men could be paraded, a second 
express arrived, ten times more terrified than the 
former. The Indians were within four miles of town, 
killing and destroying all before them. He had 
heard the constant firing of the savages, and the 
shrieks of the victims. The terror of Winchester 
now passed all bounds. Washington put himself at 
the head of about forty men, militia and recruits, 
and pushed for the scene of carnage. 

"The result is almost too ludicrous for record. The 
whole cause of the alarm proved to be three drunken 
troopers, carousing, hallooing, uttering the most 
unheard-of imprecations, and ever and anon firing 
off their pistols. Washington interrupted them in 
the midst of their revel and blasphemy, and con- 
ducted them prisoners to town." 

This was in Virginia, and among the countrymen 
and neighbors of Washington. 

THE BUTLER CLAIM . 

Was situated at the foot of the deep gorge which 
came out of the mountains, and was first owned by 
a party of negroes, hence was called the " Nigger 
Claim." The river was dammed and turned as usual 
in river claims. The channel was straight and 
smooth and offered no holding-place for the gold, 
and all of the party except Butler left the claim. 
The following year Butler borrowed five or six hun- 
dred dollars of Uncle Pompey, another colored man, 
and opened the claim a little lower down in a bend. 
It proved the richest piece of ground ever found in 
the vicinity, or even in the two counties, being a 
mass of gravel six or eight feet deep, literally lousy 
with gold. A day's work with a rocker would pro- 
duce ten, twenty, thirty, and even fifty thousand 
dollars. Fred Westmoreland, a cool and sensible 
person, not liable to be excited, says he frequently 
saw a milk pan, the ordinary gold pan, heaping full 
for a day's work, so full that it could not be lifted by 
the rim without tearing in pieces. Some of the dirt, 
not so rich, was washed in a long torn. According 
to Tom Love a hundred dollars' worth of dust could 
be seen following the dirt along the sluice-box, the 
hands who were tending it stealing the dust by the 
handful. A face or breast was worked on the bed of 
gravel, and the gold showed from the top to the bot- 
tom, a distance of six or eight feet. At the bottom 
the pure dust could be gathered with a spoon. When 
it was known how immensely rich it was, a number 
of men were anxious to have a share. The former 
partners of Butler were hunted up and induced to 
sell interests in the claim. A number of suits were 
commenced against Butler, and some half-dozen or 
more lawyers engaged to share the proceeds if 
successful. A receiver was appointed to take charge 
of the claim pending the suits. Robert Bennet, 
known as Bob Bennet, a well-known citizen of Lan- 
cha Plana, was once appointed custodian for a day. 
In a few panfuls of dirt he obtained dust to the 
amount of two thousand two hundred dollars, which, 
" Damned fool that 1 was, I turned over to the court. 
26 



Everybody was taking and keeping all they could 
get." It was too much for the old man. He was 
taken sick with fever and shortly died. It was 
known by his friends that he had some eighty thou- 
sand dollars on deposit at Mokelumne Hill, as much 
more at Sacramento, and also immense sums buried 
in unknown spots. The Public Administrator took 
possession of the property and there was not enough 
found to pay a few small outstanding debts. 

TOWNERVILLE, 

Or "Hotel de Twelve," as it was sometimes called, was 
the place of operations of a man by the name of Tow- 
ner, who was sent up by the San Francisco Philhar- 
monic Society, during the copper excitement, to make 
a fortune for each member of the society. He did not 
manifest much knowledge of mineral veins, but 
showed uncommon skill in manipulating stocks and 
mines for his own pocket, the vouchers, when exam- 
ined, always showing a margin for his benefit. 
This camp was composed largely of the Irish ele- 
ment, and true to their reputation, fun was the gen- 
eral order. When the officer, appointed in 1863 
to enroll the able-bodied men in the county, made 
his appearance in the camp, a general scampering to 
the chaparral thickets took place. Scarce a man 
was to be seen. Several families of children were 
running about, but they were so well instructed that 
they did not know their names. The officer ques- 
tioned a woman who had six little bright-eyed ras- 
cals running around, as to her husband's name. "I 
have naw husband." The officer ventured to remark 
that the circumstances of such a large family with- 
out a husband was rather unusual. " Oi, there's 
mony a woman has childer without a husband." A 
demand was then made of the superintendent for 
the pay-roll, which, after quite an elaborate argu- 
ment, was shown, which afforded part of the 
requisite' data. When this had been given up most 
of the men came back to their work. A general 
jollification took place, the men seeming to be well 
satisfied with having bothered the officer for an hour 
or two. After taking dinner with them, every lux- 
ury the camp afforded being put upon the table, he 
left with mutual good feeling. Soon after he was 
gone the last of the absconding men came in. Now 
was their time for fun. He had evaded the draft; 
he was to be fined five hundred dollars and sent to 
Alcatraz to carry sand bags for a year. A reward 
was to be offered for his apprehension. A file of 
soldiers was to be sent after him and much more to 
the same effect. He might yet overtake the officer and 
get his name put on. Pat started like a shot out of 
a gun; he scaled the side of the mountain like a 
deer, and two miles away from the camp overtook 
the officer, only to be informed that he had been 
hoaxed; that his name was already on the roll. 
Another person in the vicinity, a first-class wag, 
bothered the officer considerably by putting on a 
new face every time they met, invariably getting the 
laugh on him. 






202 



BISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



I 



\ mi- OPEH \. 
This was a small town or cam]) at (lie loot -Mils 
in the south-weBtern pari of the county, and bad 

at first a population of only twenty-five or thirty, 
mostly Mexicans, who worked with bat ay as, there 
being but little water. When the Lancaster ditch 
was brought in in L853, the population swelled to sev- 
eral hundred, ("amp Opera was known as a rough 
place, being a resort for desperate whites as well 
as Mexicans. It is said that Joaquin made it a 
stopping place in his frequent excursions. The first 
trading post was kept by a white man from Mexico, 
by the name of Kemp, and Ike Mansfield. Kemp 
was charged with stealing some specimens of gold, 
and was hung up by the miners, who, however, let 
him down before life was extinct, and let him go 
on condition that he should leave the country, which 
he did. Patrick Sculley had a trading post after- 
wards, and trusted out nearly his whole stock of 
provisions to the men, who were throwing up dirt 
for Winter washing. The rains not coming accord- 
ing to expectation, he Avas compelled to take the 
piles of dirt for pay, and realized very little for his 
goods. Near Camp Opera is a small graveyard, 
said to have been peopled with victims to whisky. 
Several cabins were said to have sent their whole 
number of occupants to this settlement. In 1857, 
the place maintained several stores, a dozen or more 
saloons, and two dance houses, and was considered 
a lively place. It gradually went down, and now 
only a few men make a living, where hundreds for- 
merly took out the means for riot and extravagance. 
The ground in places was quite rich with coarse 
gold, which was found in gravel underlying the 
coal formation, though it had, in many places, been 
swept out towards the valley by an over- wash. 

FRENCH CAMP. 

This place is a mile or two south of Camp Opera, 
and is much like it in character. It has had rather 
more extensive gravel claims, however, which are 
probably a relic of the wash of Mokelumne river in 
pre-glacial times. It was occupied by a party of 
Frenchmen in an early day, hence the name, though 
afterwards mined mostly by Mexicans and Chilenos. 
Some coarse gold was found here. The country is 
threaded by small quartz veins, which are supposed 
to have helped to enrich the ravines and flats. In 
1854, a band of Yaqui Indians, numbering forty or 
more, mined here. They were wild, savage looking 
fellows, but lived peaceably with the other miners. 
They were fond of whisky and cards. In 1854, an 
old man named Finley, who drove an ox-team to 
Sacramento, and frequently carried considerable 
gold-dust, was set upon by a Mexican, who drew a 
long knife and rushed upon him. Finley having no 
arms, ran away, taking to the brush. The Mexican 
came near enough to strike at him, slitting his coat 
and shirt open, without hurting him, however. He 
made his way into lone after dark, and recovered 



his team the following day. About the year 1856, 
Joe Sept en, an Italian, traced the gravel range 
under the hills, finding a rich deposit, taking out, 
sometimes, several thousand dollars a week. Many 
theories were advanced as to the source of the gold. 
Some maintained that a great river formerly run 
along the foot-hills, that it could bo found by sink- 
ing deej) holes in the hills in the vicinity. A hun- 
dred deep shafts and numerous tunnels attest the 
enterprise of the miners. Some of the holes were 
four hundred feet deep. One company struck boldly 
to the west with a tunnel in the descending strata, 
and struck a vein of coal, without knowing what it 
was, however. The only paying place fell into the 
hands of James Moore and Thomas Barnet, who 
mined it successfully for nearly twenty years. It 
is now generally considered that these gravel deposits 
are the relics of a sea-shore line, which may be 
traced the entire length of Amador county. Scarcely 
a sign of the camp remains, and the country is mostly 
used for grazing. 

COPPER CENTER. 

This was quite a lively camp during the copper 
excitement in 1863, having several stores, saloons, 
and hotels, and any amount of prospective million- 
aires. The "Star of the West," a company in which 
Chas. Meader had an interest, was made the basis 
of considerable stock speculation. It never proved 
to be good, although drifting on the vein might 
have revealed paying ore. The "Bull Run," a claim 
on the high hill east of the town, had a narrow vein 
of black oxides of copper from the top down, but it 
was never a source of profit. A windmill on this 
hill was a conspicuous object for miles around. The 
hill is interesting to the geologist, having on its 
summit a bed of volcanic boulders, a relic of the 
vast plain existing previous to the glacial erosion. 
The site of Copper Center is now part of the ranch 
of J. Q. Horton, two or three miles east of Jackson 
valley. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 
VOLCANO AND VICINITY. 

As it Looked in '49 — Georgia Claim — Sharp Mining Broker — 
Rod. Stowell — Agriculture — Society — A Philosopher — 
Hydraulic Mining — Nature of the Gravel Deposits — China 
Gulch — Volcano Tunnel — Former Project of Lowering the 
Outlet — Fires — Largest Fire — Fire of 1865 — Year of Fires — 
Burning of Hanford's Store — Miners' Joke — Nocturnal 
Visitor — Murder of Beck man — Lynch Law— Stage Robber- 
ies — Miners' Library Association — Dramatic Societies — 
Russel's Hill — Fort John — Upper Rancheria — Aqueduct 
City — Contreras — Ashland — Grizzly Hill — Wheeler Dig- 
gings — Plattsburg — How Named — Hunt's Gulch — Spanish 
Gulch — Whisky Slide — Large Crystal Caves. 

Volcano is situated on Sutter creek, twelve miles 
above the town of Sutter Creek, and about twelve 
miles north-east from the county seat. This place 
seems to have been discovered in 1848, as a party of 
Stevenson's soldiers were here about the time that 
another party was mining on the Mokelumne river. 
They built two huts on Soldiers' gulch, so named on 



VOLCANO AND VICINITY. 



203 



that account, near the place afterward occupied by 
Hale's sash factory. The party of Mexicans, who 
were first in the camp in the Spring of '49, found two 
dead bodies in the huts, and buried them on what 
was afterward called graveyard hill. How these 
came to their death, or what became of the balance 
of the party, is not known. Colonel Stevenson, who 
resides at San Francisco, full of memories of that 
day, though at the advanced age of eighty-one, has 
no knowledge of any of his men ever having mined 
there. The huts, two in number, formed by set- 
ting poles endwise in the ground in the shape of 
an A, the whole being covered with dirt, were stand- 
ing during the Summer of '49, but were torn down 
as the immigration came in. It is difficult to ascer- 
tain who came first in '49. The first wagon was 
driven in by William Wiley, now living on a ranch 
six miles north-east from Jackson, at the foot of 
tanyard hill. He was of a party of eight, from 
Dayton near Ottawa, Illinois, consisting of John 
Green and his sons, Joseph and Jesse, Erick Erick- 
son, Torkle Erickson, Charles Ewebanks, and Jack- 
son Beam. They had been camping on Sutter creek 
near the present town, and represent that place at 
that time as entirely vacant; not a man, not a hole 
even sunk there, though the works of General 
Sutter and his party, who mined there in 1848, 
might have escaped their attention or have been for- 
gotten. 

At that time, there were no houses in Volcano, 
except the huts built by the soldiers. Soon after the 
arrival of the Green party, Jacob Cook and party 
also came in with a wagon, and the numbers aug- 
mented until by Winter there were about one hun- 
dred persons. Some of Green's party had preceded 
the main body, and staked off claims where the 
Cross & Gordon claim and Georgia claim were after- 
ward located. 

A VIEW OF VOLCANO 

As it then was, would make a great contrast with 
the present appearance. Standing on the point at 
the junction of Soldiers' gulch with Sutter creek, 
toward the east was a flat, terminating near the 
Griesbach ranch, covered with tall grass, as high as 
the backs of the animals feeding on it. Large white 
oaks, with branches drooping nearly to the ground, 
were scattered over the grassy plain, giving it the 
appearance of a cultivated and well cared for park. 
The clear water of the creek meandered along the 
meadow, rippling over the quartz gravel, warming 
in the sun on a sandy beach, or cooling itself in a 
deep hole under a shady bank, where the mountain 
trout of pounds in weight lurked for the coming of 
the unwary insect. The gray limestone formed a 
pleasing contrast to the dark green of the pines, 
which waved from all the hills around. A spring of 
the purest and coldest of water, large enough to 
turn a mill, well remembered by all the residents 
down to 1856, bubbled out of the rock, on which the 
Masonic Hall was built, near the junction of Sutter 



creek with the south branch. For untold ages the 
Indian had gathered acorns and pine-nuts, or 
captured the deer and other game with which the 
hills abounded. But there was gold in the hills, gold 
in the flat, in the gulches, everywhere; gold that 
opens the roads to influence, power, and happiness. 
The grassy plains have been torn up, the rich soil 
sluiced through the canon, and are but unsightly piles 
of rock, holes of mud and stagnant water. The hills, 
robbed of their graceful pines, are furrowed into deep 
gullies, while the clear, limpid waters of the creek, 
turned from the channel and carried into the sur- 
rounding hills, are laden with mud, sand, and gravel, 
canying destruction to the farms in the valley below. 
Such was and such is Volcano. It is not intended to 
find fault with the work done — it is probably well; 
for until the great balance sheet is made out, who 
shall say that the activity, the commercial life, the 
enlarging of man's powers by these operations, may 
not more than compensate the apparent destruction. 
The Illinois party, Green & Co., went to 
work on the ground staked off. The surface was a 
reddish clay, evidently a wash from the hill to the 
west. About eight feet from the surface they came 
to the gravel, which was so rich that they could 
pick out gold with the fingers. They carried the 
dirt to the creek, some two hundred yards away, in 
buckets, and washed it in a rocker. They made 
about a hundred dollars a day to the man, some of 
which was coarse gold, one piece being worth over 
nine hundred dollars. At a depth of fifteen feet 
they struck a yellow clay, so tough that they could 
not wash it, and abandoned the claim as worked 
out* The same place was worked continually for 
thirty years. Probably a million of dollars in all 
was taken out of it, or in the immediate vicinity. 
Some years after it was known as the Cross and Gor- 
don claim. They had a pump, worked by several 
horses, to keep the water out. It is said that they 
divided thirty thousand dollars profits at the end ot 
a year. It was afterwards known as the 

GEORGIA CLAIM. 

There were sixteen shares in this company, and the 
stock was rated as high as three thousand dollars per 
share. It is said that some of the men carried away 
as high as thirty thousand dollars each. Various 
devices were used to get rid of the water. One engi- 
neer, of qiiestionable ability, induced them to put in a 
pendulum pump, with which one man could do as 
much as several by the ordinary method. A gallows 
fifty feet high was erected, and a pine log hung in it 
as a pendulum. Two stout men could scarcely keep 
the thing swinging with no machinery or pump 
attached to it, and the machine was consigned to the 
tomb of all attempts to manufacture power out of 
nothing. A stout fellow was hired, for four dollars, 
to keep the water down during the night, which he 
did and had time to spare to dance away his wages 
at fifty cents a round, at a dance house in the vicin- 
ity. He afterwards found his way to the State 



•Jul 



IMSTokY OF \M ADOB COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



prison for the thefl of a watoh, valued al fifty dol- 
lars, at a time thai Btealing fifty dollar- was a cap 
ital offense. It may be also mentioned that this 
Bame fellow belonged to an organization that bad 

agreed tO lick any man thai would work lor leSB 

than four dollars a day. The claim was afterwarde 
kepi drj by a si. 'am engine and pump. Onee, in a 
storm, the water got the better of the engine, and 

several feet above all the works, leaving only 

the smoke -lack ahove the water. John Goodwin. 
a waggish fellow, proposed thai a man should take 
sonic kindling and wood and dive with it down to 
the furnace, and start a lire. The plan was not 
adopted. 

To return to '49. Aboul the first of October two 
houses were built, one near the Odd Fellows' Hall, 
there being a spring in that vicinity, and also a 
brush and pole shanty, covered with dirt, not far 
away. Besides the Green company, there were 
Dr. Kelsey, afterwards President of the First 
National Bank, Stockton, also Treasurer of San 
Joaquin county, who was afterwards found dead in 
a boat on the slough; Bunnel, from Ohio; Ballard, of 
Illinois; Keller, from Ohio; Jacob Cook, now living 
at Pine (irove; Henry Hester; Jim Gould, now at 
Jackson; Philip 'Kyle, now of San Joaquin county; 
Mills, P. Fellinsbee, McDowell, Rod. Stowell, and 
other names not remembered, making a population 
of about fifty. Most of the mining was in Soldiers' 
gulch, the dirt being carried to the creek for wash- 
ing. A number of men made hand-barrows, on 
which they tarried the dirt. Finally a cart was 
rigged up, and, with a yoke of cattle to draw it, 
readily rented for eight dollars per day. ,. 

Cook & Co., got a barrel of syrup, one of whisky, 
and one of vinegar, from Sacramento, and started 
the first store. Syrup was worth five dollars per 
gallon, vinegar the same, and whisky was fifty cents 
a drink. They also kept a few boarders, at twenty- 
one dollars per week. 

The Indians worked in Indian gulch, hence its 
name. A Missourian jumped an Indian's hole, throw- 
ing out his tools. The Indians came around and 
ordered him out. Upon his refusing to leave, they 
drew their bows, and prepared to enforce the com- 
mand. He ran away, going to Soldiers' gulch, where 
a party was raised to pursue and chastise the 
Indians. When the party came in sight, the Indians 
ran, and the whites fired at them, Eod. Stowell, a 
Texas ranger, killing one. They followed them 
towards Bussel hill, occasionally getting sight of 
them and firing, though no more were killed. The 
following day, one of a party of three or four men, 
traveling from Jackson to Yolcano, stopped to let 
his horse eat grass at the flat where Armstrong 
afterwards built a saw-mill. "When the others of 
the party had got out of sight, the Indians fell upon 
him and killed him; stripping off his clothes, they 
partially concealed the body by laying it by the 
side of a log, and burying it with brush. Being 



ed search was made, and his hody disoovei'ed, 
the Indians having left one foot sticking out. He 
was buried at the graveyard hill. This murder 
was supposed to have been in retaliation for the kill- 
ing of the Indian by Stowell. 

On the approach of Winter, Green's party, with 
others, numbering about twenty in all, built a log 
cabin containing several compartments, making it 
compact to avoid attacks of the Indians, who were 
evincing some signs of hostility, stealing all the stock 
they could. They got it all except a mule, which 
was saved by locking a chain, fastened to a log by 
a staple and ring, around its neck. There was only 
one house between Volcano and Jackson, and that 
was on the top of tanyard hill. Two of the men 
in the big cabin died of scurvy during the Winter. 
Captain Updegraff had a cabin near the Consolation 
or present Union House. 

Therains commenced in the latter part of October. 
Green's party sunk a hole in Clapboard gulch, at the 
beginning of the rainy season, and got two ounces 
to the pan, but were obliged to abandon the place on 
account of water. They afterwards mined in the 
heads of the gulches, and by the first of January 
had accumulated about seventy-five pounds of dust, 
worth about sixteen thousand dollars, when they 
abandoned the camp as worked out. It may be here 
remarked that that was the saying when the writer 
came in 1850. It was said in 1848 that the middle 
of a few little ravines paid a spade wide and no more. 
In 1853, when the writer came to Volcano, Fred 
Wallace, one of the lucky miners, said the camp was 
worked out, and Jacob Cook, now of Pine Grove, 
says that in '49 they would have abandoned Volcano 
if their cattle had not been too poor to draw their 
wagon up the hill. 

During the Winter, Eod. Stowell, a Texas ranger, 
killed Sheldon, a Missourian, by stabbing him with a 
long knife. The statements concerning this transac- 
tion are very conflicting. Stowell claimed that on 
entering the cabin, which was a kind of public house, 
Sheldon shut and locked the doors, making him 
(Stowell) a prisoner, and then drew a knife to kill 
him, and that he acted in pure self-defense. Jim 
Gould, an eye-witness, states the house was not 
closed; that Sheldon drew a small knife and jocu- 
larly told Stowell he was going to kill him ; that the 
killing of Sheldon was uncalled for and wanton. It 
may be observed that the habit of retributive justice 
was gradually adopted by early miners as a kind of 
necessity, and had not grown into a practice at this 
time, or Stowell might have fared hard at the hands 
of the miners, who were much shocked at the affair. 

In the Spring and Summer many additions were 
made to the population. Mann, afterwards of Jack- 
son, opened a restaurant — meals one dollar. The 
Hanfords opened a store, with W. I. Morgan as man- 
ager, which stock was afterwards increased until it 
was the largest in the county. The Fourth of July 
was celebrated by the reading of the Declaration by 




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VOLCANO AND VICINITY. 



205 



McDowell, who afterwards resided at Jackson. Mann 
got up the dinner for five dollars a head. A family 
camped near Grass Valley about this time, and many 
of the miners walked out, a distance of three or four 
miles, to catch a glimpse of a woman. 

In the Summer of 1850, Billy Eogers, Sheriff of 
El Dorado, passed through Volcano with his party 
of men with whom he had been hunting Indians in 
the mountains. They purchased some beef, some- 
where in the vicinity, of a man by the name of 
Ehodes, who, dissatisfied with the payment, followed 
Eogers' party into Volcano. Meeting Skaggs, one of 
the party, in a saloon kept by Ingalls, a dispute 
ensued, during which Ehodes shot Skaggs in the 
wrist, but while cocking his pistol for another shot, 
Skaggs fired, killing Ehodes. As the matter was 
evidently in self-defense, nothing was done about it. 
F. M. Whitmore, still resident in Volcano, and James 
L. Halsted, afterwards member of the Legislature 
from Santa Cruz county, came early in 1850. 

The graveyard was fenced in during the Summer 
with shakes taken from the roof of the Green cabin, 
which, it seems, had been abandoned by the owners 
when they left the camp in January. Volcano 
had a kind of sleepy existence during the Summer 
of 1850. It was evidently waiting for an infusion of 
more active blood into the population. There was 
some carting to the creek, and Captain Graham and 
Biggs were enterprising enough to rig up a water- 
power to run rockers. It was a wheel, of the sim- 
plest construction, turned by water carried to it in 
spouts or troughs chopped out of logs. It would 
keep five or six rockers on the move, the charge 
being sixteen dollars per day, each. This was thought 
to be a great stride in mining improvements. 

In the Autumn of 1850, many persons came in 
by the plains, and Volcano began to assume the 
appearance of a permanent settlement. The Jeromes, 
three in number, one of whom is still in Volcano, 
came this season. Jerome, Hansen & Smith opened 
a store with a respectable stock of goods. The first 
religious service in the town was in a building of 
theirs, by Mr. Davidson of the ministers' company 
at Amador, being the same Davidson who afterwards 
built the church now going to ruins on the hill. 
Henry Jones' family was the first to settle here. He 
was a shrewd, sharp man, with one eye half shut; 
this half-closed eye, in the opinion of the people, 
being gifted with the remarkable quality of seeing 
" clean through everything." Two little children 
(girls) always looked neat as dolls. When they got 
a speck of dust on their clothes, she would wash and 
spank them, and put on clean dresses. Mrs. Jones had 
a mania for neatness, and her puncheon floor would 
not soil a lavender kid. She met a man calling to see 
Mr. Jones, with: "Don't come in here with your 
dirty feet." The red dust certainly was very 
annoying to a neat housekeeper. At the opening of a 
saloon in 1851, the- good-natured, but rough miners 
cut a hole in the lining of the roof, chucked the 



owner up through, and kept him there until he 
' came to terms. 

At the election this year, when Joe Douglass and 
Colonel Collyer were the candidates, the friends of 
the former voted a rancheria of Indians. 

During the Winter, portions of the graveyard 
were found to be rich, and the gulches were worked 
much deeper. It now began to be suspected, or 
rather learned, that the deposits of gold were enor- 
mously large, and that they extended to great 
depths. Henry Jones, L. McLaine, Fred Wallace, 
Dr. M. K. Boucher, Doctor Yeager, Ike West, — — 
Thomas, Ellec Hayes, and others, had claims in 
Soldiers' gulch that were enormously rich. A cart- 
load of dirt would have two hundred and fifty dol- 
lars in it. Sometimes a pan of dirt would contain 
five hundred dollars. Men who never in their lives 
had a hundred dollars, would make a thousand 
dollars a day. A company of Texans would make 
a hundred dollars each in a day, and gamble it away 
every night, and come to their claim in the morning 
broke. This was their way of having a good time, 
and gambling saloons came in for a large share of 
the profits. Clapboard gulch also paid good wages; 
though not so rich as Soldiers' gulch, the pay-dirt 
was easier washed and near the surface. Indian 
gulch was also found to be rich, especially at the 
head. The Welch claim had a mound of dirt a few 
feet across that had more than a hundred thousand 
dollars in it. Some of the gold was found in a tough 
clay that defied washing by any ordinary method. 
Boiling was found to disintegrate the clay, and 
boilers were erected in many places to steam it so 
that it would come to pieces. It was observed that 
when left in the sun to dry hard, the clay would fall 
to pieces, and drying yards were established where 
the rich dirt was dried and pounded. 

A SHARP MINING BROKER. 

A sharp trade was driven in claims, a thousand 
dollars being frequently paid for a piece of ground 
thirty feet square. Moore Lerty was particularly 
successful in selling claims. His operations were 
bold, and perhaps original. He would open a claim 
in a good vicinity, down to good-looking dirt, and 
then would load an old musket with gold-dust, and 
shoot the ground full of gold. It is said that he has 
been known to punish a claim with two or three 
hundred dollars in this way. If he did not sell the 
claim, he could wash the dirt, and recover the dust. 
He sold a claim for one thousand dollars in this way ' 
to Henry Jones, notably the sharpest man in Vol- 
cano. Jones tried the claim for a day or two before 
purchasing, it is said, even going into the hole at 
night to get the dirt, so as to be sure that he was 
not imposed on. The dirt was all rich, so he bought 
it. The fun of the matter was in the fact that the 
place proved to be really rich, one of the best in the 
camp. Another salted claim, in China gulch, also 
proved good, but several of his swindles coming to 
light, he fled before the wrath that began to mani- 



206 



HISTORY OK AMADOU OOl'NTY < A 1,1 I'oliN IA. 



fuel itself, and lefl the country. A. number of houses 
of respectable appearance were buill in 1851, among 
wliicli were the Volcano Eotel, by (J. W. (j-emmil; 
the National, by Dr. Flint, of Flint, Bixby & Co.; 
tlic Philadelphia Souse, by Downs, and some 
others. The lasl two were standing until ;i few 
\ car- since, a relic of pioneer days. 

STOWELL to THE FRONT AGAIN. 

Dr. Flint, since an extensive stock- raiser in some 
of the southern counties, under the name of Flint, 
Bixby & Co., went into the mountains on the line 
of the emigrant road, and purchased stock. In 
driving it down to Volcano some of it escaped, and 
was taken up by some miners at Fort Ann, who 
advertised the cattle as well as they were able at 
that time, as estrays. They refused to give them 
up to Flint on the proof of ownership which he 
presented, and a lawyer advised him to avoid the 
preliminary costs of a suit, a hundred dollars or 
more, by taking the cattle by force, so as to compel 
them to initiate the lawsuit if they wanted one. 
Flint took Hod. Stowell along as the force element; 
but force was something that both sides could appeal 
to, and a row ensued, Rod. getting a ball which 
made a cripple of him for life; and the two miners, 
wounds which were thought by the physician to be 
mortal. Stowell was arrested, and found guilty of 
murder by a jury of miners, and a resolution was 
passed to hang him when either of the victims should 
die, and a guard was set to watch him. Unex- 
pectedly, the two miners recovered, and Stowell 
escaped hanging, more on account of the pleadings 
of his mother than any good-will the people bore 
him, for his name had become offensive. Clark, 
then Sheriff of Calaveras county, was present, but 
did not attempt to rescue the prisoner. 

AGRICULTURE. 

It could not be expected that such a piece of 
ground as the Volcano flat should remain idle. In 
1851, it was taken up for ranches by several parties. 
James L. Halstead and Thomas Bryant took up the 
lower part next to the town, and Van Metre, and 
another man, the upper part. Halstead and Bryant 
raised potatoes in 1851, both on the main stream and 
on the south branch. In 1S52, Henry Jones became 
the owner of the upper ranch, and several acres of 
potatoes were planted. The soil produced enor- 
mously. According to Jones, who testified to it 
under oath, in a suit for the restitution of water 
which the miners had directed from his ranch, the 
yield was seven hundred and fifty bushels to the 
acre. He had ten thousand hills which would aver- 
age ten pounds to the hill, worth ten cents per 
pound. Tomatoes, and all kinds of vegetables, 
flourished with unknown luxuriance, the produce 
selling at enormous prices. Halstead would make 
twenty dollars per day carrying vegetables around 
in a sack. Wash. Lewis at this time was a partner 
in the ranch. In 1853, an enormous crop of potatoes 



was raised, in fact, twice the amount required for the 
consumption of tin- place. . I ones succeeded in quietly 
disposing of his while holding out that he would not 
soil for less than a certain rate. Most of the others, 
stored in some cabins, were ruined by a hard frost, 
and potatoes were a white elephant. Prices for 
vegetables in the early years were, for green corn, 
one dollar per dozen; cucumbers, fifty cents; toma- 
toes, ten cents per pound, as also were beans (green), 
carrots, beets, turnips, parsnips, and cabbage; water- 
melons, fifty cents to one dollar each; figs, peaches, 
and pears, twenty-five cents each, the last being 
imported from Lower California. An Oregon apple, 
in the Winter, was worth one dollar as late as 1857. 

SOCIETY. 

In 1852, Colonel Madeira, John Turner, Captain 
Richards, Story, Else, Oaf, Addison, Shultis, Wash. 
Lewis, Joe Lewis, Downs, Hartram, and Stevenson, 
settled in the place, and there began to be society. 
It was now possible to get up a respectable dance by 
pressing into service all — mothers as well as children. 
Mrs. Henly, a woman who cooked at the Volcano 
Hotel, and Mr. Hunt were married in 1851, this 
being the first wedding in the town. The next was 
Halstead and a sister of the Lewis brothers, soon 
after crossing the plains; the next, John James and 
a daughter of Else. 

Perhaps few towns could boast of as much talent 
lying around loose as Volcano. On the flat, back of 
the town, was a number of cabins where a cluster of 
intellectual lights daily discussed and solved all the 
abstruse questions since modestly treated upon by 
Spencer, Huxley, Tyndal and others. Tom Boucher 
had edited a magazine in Cincinnati, and disliked to 
come to shoveling the tough mud in which gold was 
found in Volcano. Some half a dozen more of the 
same kind felt and thought the same way. The 
days were too hot for work, but the cool evenings 
were conducive to profound thoughts, so they wore 
their old broadcloth into dirty gloss, read all the 
books and newspapers that could be found, and 
trusted to heaven, or the generosity of the boys, for 
a square meal. This constellation of stars of the 
first magnitude finally became scattered. The 
country was not advanced enough in 1853, to sustain 
such a society. 

This does not finish the subject, however. There 
were others who adapted themselves to the circum- 
stances. Ellec Hayes, who worked on the grave- 
yard hill, was a West Pointer, and afterward a 
brigadier-general, and was killed in the battles of 
the Wilderness. Sempronius Boyd was afterward a 
Union general, and also member of Congress. Rufus 
Boyd also became a member of Congress. James T. 
Farley commenced his career in this place, his first 
cases being before Justice Stevens. Halstead, who 
carried vegetables on his back over the town, is now 
a distinguished lawyer in Santa Cruz, having filled 
many positions of honor and profit. S. J. K. Handy, 



VOLCANO AND VICINITY. 



207 



Judge Black, Moses Tebbs, Judge Beynolds, all men 
of note, were residents of Volcano in early days, and 
have made their mark in the world. J. W. Porter, 
now a lawyer at Jackson, sunk the deepest hole for 
gravel ever seen about Volcano, and perhaps, in the 
county. He was as fond of going to the bottom of 
things while mining as when searching out his law 
points, and started a shaft on the clay between the 
limestone and slate at the head of Soldiers' gulch. 
He went down one hundred and fifty feet, striking 
the limestone at the bottom, finding gold all the way. 
Morris M. Estee, one of the foremost lawyers in San 
Francisco, was a boy here in 1855, just commencing 
the study of law. M. W. Gordon, since member of 
the Legislature, and several times County Judge, 
and always, from the necessity of things, a foremost 
man, could be seen thirty years since swinging the 
pick as lustily as any of the miners. 

There were some prominent physicians, also Dr. 
Ayer, now of San Francisco, mined in Humbug 
gulch in an early day. Dr. Morgan, afterward of 
Sacramento, mined in the Soldiers' gulch, and also 
on the south branch. He was a wag of the first 
water, and generally kept some good thing in the 
way of fun traveling about the camp. He gave 
" Shirt-tail Bend" its felicitous name. It is related 
of him that he once sold a good claim for a very in- 
significant sum. When it proved a big thing, he was 
so mortified that he took himself out one side and 
chastised himself with a big hickory, exclaiming, 
between the blows, " Take that you d — n fool; sell a 
good claim for nothing, will you ? " M. K. Boucher, 
a brother to Tom, the magazine writer, was a man 
of thorough knowledge in his profession, and of 
varied reading in general science. Dr. Ives, an 
eminent physician, helped for years to make the 
waters of Sutter creek a stream of mud and sand. 
In the chaos of social elements these men threw 
away the university gown and donned the hickory 
shirt and canvas pants of the miner. Some, dis- 
couraged by the apparent worthlessness of their 
scientific training in the hurly burly of this kind of 
life, sunk and never recovered, dying in poverty and 
obscurity; others, gathering wisdom from the rough 
experience, arose mightier than before, and pushed 
their way to eminence. With such elements, it is not 
strange that the old-time laws of ethics and religion 
should be swept away like cobwebs, as unsuitable for 
the new circumstances, and new ones established, or 
at least tried. We, who look at the comparatively 
orderly days of 1881, can scarcely form an idea of 
the chaos of thirty years since. 

A PHILOSOPHER. 

Volcano was famous, in some places at least, for 
other things than its gold. In 1855 a resident wrote 
and published a work on natural philosophy, which 
was sent over all the world, copies of it going to 
the sovereigns of Europe, the Pope of Eome, and 
also to the principal scientific and literary men 
of both continents. The work was entitled, "An 



Examiner into the Laws of Nature," and was writ- 
ten " principally for those who had not examined 
much into the laws of Nature, and who had not 
made a variety of galvanic and other experiments, 
and more especially for the benefit of children." It 
was so clear and pellucid in argument, so simple 
and grand in expression, that children, undoubtedly, 
could appreciate it as well as older persons. A few 
extracts from the work will give an idea of the 
majestic sweep of thought which characterized the 
work from the beginning to the end. 

; ' From examining into the external organization 
surrounding the surface of the earth, we find there 
are fixed laws created within the physical organiza- 
tion to bring on periods of changes. Said changes 
appear approaching towards perfection. By track- 
ing some of said changes to the present period, we 
learn that all animated nature has undergone 
changes. From said changes said cause, so ex- 
isting in and among men, has been so changed 
from time to time that it is difficult for one to become 
acquainted with said cause. Man can only become 
acquainted with said existing poisonous cause in and 
among men, in all its branches, from tracing said 
effects from causes up to the present period, as before 
said. * * * I believe a general knowledge 
of said cause, so existing in and among men, that 
man will greatly T diminish said cause so existing in 
and among men ; and the effects that must follow and 
from so diminishing said poison, must be beneficial 
results flowing therefrom. * * * So of the 
growth of wheat: When said grains become com- 
posed in said heads and perfected, said two statutes, 
male and female, remained in said grains until the 
next planting time, if said grains did not become de- 
composed from some cause. When said wheat stalks 
and head were perfected, the affinity which com- 
posed said stalks and head, through said liquid for- 
mation, and holds said stalks together in forms and 
shapes, and said stalks were strong and tough, the 
power of affinity existed in said stalks and heads. 
What effect followed said wheat stalks, heads, and 
grains ? When said liquid circulation within said 
stalks and heads ceased circulating, the power of 
affinity commenced decreasing, and said stalks com- 
menced losing their power and strength gradually, 
as said power continued diminishing within; and by 
the time said power had ceased holding said stalks 
together in form and shape, said parcels within had 
composed said stalks, and occupied the same position 
in parcels as they did when said formation com- 
menced. Said grains, when perfected and become 
hard and somewhat solid, said power of affinity 
existed the greatest in some grains, and if left sub- 
ject to said law, undergoes the same process as said 
stalks did." 

The author in this lucid way, described the forma- 
tion of the earth, seas, and mineral lodes; the 
decomposition of the " said water into said seas 
into the fine parcels they occupied previous to the 
formation of said seas," thus forestalling this book 
by more than a quarter of a century! His biogra- 
phy written by himself is : — 

" The author of this work is in and about five feet 
and five inches tall; possessed of dark brownish hair 
and eyes; a projecting forehead over his eyes; 
rather flat on the top of his head; and has been 
subject to a crook in one of his fingers on his right 



208 



BISTORT? OF A.MADOB Cl >UNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



band, the Beoond finger from the thumb, a1 the firel 
joint from the nail, crooking towards the thumb; 
and weighs in and about one hundred and twenty 
pounds. 

■■ M \ mother did inform me thai I was born in 
Northampton county, and State of Pennsylvania, 
February I s . L807, Ann it was my parents' lol to he 
poor, and to become a Bubjecl to the support of a 
large family, and I being the youngest of the 
family, and through said cause I did not receive 
a proper education in my youthful days. All the 

Bel ling I did receive at different periods, did not 

receive one year. Notwithstanding, in the con- 
struction, form, and shape of my physical organiza- 
tion, was constructed organs possessed of power to 

create natural impressions in my mind; although 
said organs was merely excited into action in my 
youthful days owing to said cause. * * * * 

" I had a little money left. I did deposit said 
money into a banking house, and took a check from 
said banking house; and I put said check into a 
letter, and I put said letter into the post-office to be 
sent home to my friends. The next day it was re- 
ported through the city that said banking house had 
Jailed. From said report, I became aware that said 
money could not reach the Atlantic States. I was 
grieved for a few days with sorrows, but on meditat- 
ing I became at once aware, if I did continue fret- 
ting and grieving for said disappointments, that I 
should soon destroy my mind, and I must remain 
hopeless of doing anything for myself or my friends. 
I at once came to a conclusion, as I thought that 1 was 
born so unlucky; and if I was born so unlucky there 
must be a sure cause for it. But why was it so, or 
what cause existed in me that made me so unlucky ? 
but said cause thereof I could not tell." 

He labored in the mines three years with poor 
success. 

" In December, 1854, I became so reduced in means 
that 1 had but one suit of clothes, which I had on my 
body. My clothes became subject to lice, and I had 
to suffer the torments of said lice for five days, before 
1 could possibly raise means to buy clean clothes; 
and became hungry and did go into a house and ask 
for something to eat, and told them that I had no 
money to pa}' for it." 

FORMATION AND COMPOSITION OF THE EARTH. 

"In describing the organization of the earth I 
shall first commence on her surface, and then pene- 
trate into her internal parts. First, the earth has an 
outside crust or shell, extending from her surface 
towards her center, from five hundred to a thousand 
miles, more or less, which forms a roundish arch 
within her. Said outside crust or shell is of a nature 
like the bark of trees, and like oyster shells, and 
like rocks found on her surface. Said crust or shell 
is the hardest and most porous on and near her sur- 
face, like trees are the most solid on and in their 
center. Oyster shells possess the same nature. * * 
It is often difficult by looking small children in the 
face, to tell whether they are males or females; the 
greatest distinction only develops itself in and about 
the time the}- mature. The moon is possessed of the 
same organization as the earth. The moon has a 
current of air round his or her body, but said air 
does not as yet carry vapor, for this reason : The 
moon is not as yet matured to his or her full size; and 
if the moon is a female her surface cannot produce 
vegetation as yet. The sea is the stomach of the 
moon the same as the sea is the stomach of the earth, 



and in its organization collects matter of space in 
parcels possessed of all the different qualities and 
properties required to compose every separate and 
different internal and external organ of the moon, in 
the same order that animals and men receive into 
their Btomachs liquid and all the vegetable ingre- 
dients for their entire organization. The different 
organs in said organization separate the different 
properties required to compose the different parts of 
the body, although all are mixed up at once in the 
stomach." 

The Professor, by means of electricity, was able 
to detect all the phases of character. 

"I happened to be at a hotel where a number of 
men had collected, and, by looking at said men in 
their faces, I soon saw that said men were possessed 
of different temperaments; and I looked at one man, 
and thought, owing to his organization, that his 
body must contain too much electricity, and not 
enough of caloric, and that bis head must contain 
too much caloric, and not enough electricity. I 
asked said man if he was not a subject of exciting 
uneasiness at spells, and if he did not become a sub- 
ject of blues or horrors during said exciting days? 
He said, yes. I asked him if said blues did not come 
on bim, and be did not know bow. He said, yes. 
Knowing the days of said periods, I referred him 
back to said days, and asked him if he was subject 
of said blues during said days? He said, yes. Know- 
ing the days of said negative period which followed, 
I asked bim how he felt bad in said days. He said 
he had in a manner become relieved of said blues." 

The Knickerbocker Magazine, replied: "Fervently 
appealed to as an organ of Eastern scientific opinion 
(?) to make known the views of Professor Horn, we 
have yielded to the request. Our own views are 
respectfully requested. We give them freely. We 
do not believe there is at this moment on the globe 
a really scientific philosopher who can, in any respect, 
compare with Professor Horn." What the Pope, 
Queen Victoria, and the other dignitaries of Europe 
thought of it, is not known. 

EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY-THREE. 

This season witnessed the infusion of new energy 
into mining operations. It was found that many 
of the hills and flats, like Union flat, Mahala flat, 
and the hills along the junction of the limestone and 
slate, bad gold in paying quantities. Extensive 
canals were surveyed, and mining was put on a new 
basis. The Jackson Hitch Company was organized 
by J. C. Ham, Alonzo Piatt, and, soon after, the 
Volcano Canal Company, by J. C. Shipman, B. F. 
Wheeler, M. W. Gordon, William Roberts, J. T. Far- 
ley, W. A. Eliason, and others. The waters of the 
different forks of Sutter creek were carried on to 
the hills and flats adjoining, and ground-sluicing 
inaugurated. Large masses of earth were now 
moved in a very short time. Slickens was born in 
the Winter of 1853-54, though few persons had at 
that time any serious idea of the future growth of 
the monster, else he had been strangled then and 
there. On the south branch, near the foot of Hum- 
bug gulch, was a nice little garden of an acre or two 




FOREST LIVERY STABLE. 

THOMPSON DAVIS £ MERWIKI LEACH, PROPS., Plymouth, Amador Gg Cal. 



**8m 




H lii 







FOREST HOUSE. 

T.w.EASTON, Owner & Prop? Plymouth,Amador C° Cal. 



UTM. Bfi/TTO/f *■ fl*V. *. F. 



VOLCANO AND VICINITY. 



209 



only in extent; but the soil was rich, and produced 
an abundance of vegetables. An immigrant, by the 
name of Payne, gave all he had, about eight hundred 
dollars, for this little place. The miners carried a 
stream of water into the head of the gulch, which 
was but a mile in length, with a fall of three or four 
hundred feet, and moved a hundred thousand cubic 
yards of earth down the gulch, which ran a stream 
of mud, which, in a short time, buried the ranch 
several feet deep with the sllckens, leaving only the 
roofs of the buildings above the ground. The min- 
ing law, the only one in force theu, gave him no 
remedy, and he was obliged to submit to the destruc- 
tion. The impetus given to mining gave a cor- 
responding growth to the town; and brick, stone 
and grout (cement), buildings went up in a short 
time. 

INTRODUCTION OP HYDRAULIC MINING. 

Some attempts were made in the Winter of 1853-54, 
but the idea was not fully developed. The invention 
or use of hydraulic pressure in mining, is generally 
accredited to Matthewson, of Mokelumne Hill. It 
is uncertain who first used it in Amador county. 
Some persons claim it for N. W. Spaulding, near 
Clinton. In the Winter of 1853-54, tin pipes were 
used as nozzles, with a pressure of twenty to thirty 
feet. It was thought impossible to use a hundred 
feet pressure, but experiments quickly taught the 
miners that no practical limit was probable; and 
we soon find the fall increased to seventy -five, one 
hundred, and even one hundred and fifty feet. The 
hose began to be made of the heaviest canvas, with 
two or three thicknesses. With a pressure of one 
hundred and twenty-five feet, the toughest clays 
around the camp would melt away like snow before 
a driving wind, and more gold was saved than before. 
Experience suggested improvements, and the way 
was pointed out which led to the Monitor, through 
which five hundred inches are hurled with force suffi- 
cient to move rocks tons in weight. 

At first it was customary to build pen-stocks on 
high and costly frames, which, not only encumbered 
the ground, but were liable to blow down, or fall, by 
the moving or sliding of the ground, near large 
excavations. It was learned that all the pressure 
was utilized by laying the hose on the ground, along 
the slope of the hill. Mason & Foster were the 
first to use iron pipe for hydraulic purposes. This 
was five and a quarter inches in diameter, and some- 
thing over two hundred feet long, which, with can- 
vas hose at the head, gave a pressure of nearly one 
hundred and fifty feet. This was sufficient to burst 
copper-riveted, four-inch, leather hose, and force 
twenty inches of water, minei's' measurement, through 
an inch nozzle. Some difficulty was experienced in 
providing for the expansion and contraction of the 
pipe. In a hot day the pipe would expand several 
inches; a stream of cold water turned in would sud- 
denly contract it, and, of course, cause a break. This 
was remedied by making flexible joints, and in a few 
27 



weeks the " new notion," as it was termed, became a 
starting-point for other improvements. The pipe, 
constructed in March, 1856, is still in use. 

THE NATURE OF THE GRAVEL DEPOSITS 

Began to be studied. The fact that gulches cross- 
ing limestone ranges were generally rich below such 
junction, was observed, though the reasons were then, 
and are even now, little understood; a subsequent 
conclusion, that the hills adjoining must be rich, 
caused many good claims to be opened. The Mason 
& Foster claim was of this character. The point 
of rocks near the foot of the Boardman hill, was as 
unlikely a place to find gold, except for the theory 
referred to, as one could well find; yet the ground 
payed in places from the top down forty or fifty 
feet. There appeared to have been several channels 
worn through the rocks by a former river, a subse- 
quent flow diagonally across the first channels sup- 
plying the gold, which was much rounded. As no 
quartz veins are found in the vicinity, the gravel 
containing the gold must have been moved from a 
considerable distance. The same deposit was traced 
for some miles along the limestone towards the Mo- 
kelumne river. It is now believed by many intelli- 
gent miners that these deposits are lateral moraines 
of the glacier period, the location being, to some 
extent, the consequence of the usual friable nature 
of the slates along the junction of the limestones, 
which favored the cutting of a channel on that line. 

IN CHINA GULCH. 

The Chapline boys, Story & Co., A. J. Holmes, 
now owner of*-the Northern Belle mine in Nevada, 
had good claims in China gulch, on the same range. 
The south branch, which ran parallel with this 
range and touching it occasionally, was also im- 
mensely rich, though the gold was distributed 
through gravel in places sixty or seventy feet deep. 
Some j)laces, like the Green claim in Soldiers' gulch, 
seemed to have no bottom, but kept on paying, though 
no gold was found on the bed-rock — soft mud " and 
nothing more." S. B. Boardman worked a channel 
up through the South Branch flat, striking many 
rich pockets. This was a potato field in 1853. 

The main branch of Sutter creek where Halsted, 
Bryant, and Henry W. Jones had their ranches, 
Was also immensely rich in places. The Italians 
mostly worked this, some of whom carried away 
twenty-five thousand dollars each. Bed gulch, for- 
merly called Hines gulch, along the eastern side of 
the limestone, has also been rich. Becently large 
machinery was fitted up on this place to run dirt up 
an inclined plane to a dump box, but the great ex- 
pense of raising the dirt, and the amount of water 
to contend with, induced the proprietors, Moyle & 
Co., to change their plan of working. 

VOLCANO TUNNEL. 

A joint-stock company was formed, nearly all the 
ground on the flat on the south branch as well as 
on the main creek purchased, and a tunnel started. 



■1 10 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Thia was a bold project; its longth is two thousand 
three hundred and fifty feel and strikes the flal forty- 
two feel lower than the present outlet. Theopening 
or dimensions are eighl feel square, with a grade of 
two inches to the rod. In other days thi> would 
have been impracticable, but with the aid of modern 
machinery it has been comparatively easy. The 
■compressor drill will strike two hundred and fifty 
times a minute, and requires but one man to manage 
it. It takes but little room, makes no mistakes, and 
though apparently spiteful, is more subject to control 
than horse, mule or man power. The tunnel was 
commenced lour years since, working from both ends; 
the workmen met about the first of January, 1881. 
The work is estimated to have cost nearly two hundred 
thousand dollars. Like all projects of this kind it 
has its prophets of good and evil. It will take a year 
or more to carry the works up to Red gulch, where 
the heaviest pay is expected. It is to be hoped 
that the investment may pay. 

FORMER PROJECTS FOR LOWERING THE OUTLET. 

In 1854 J. W. Bicknell, William Grubb, Odell, 
Davis, and Harmon, ran a bed-rock flume up the 
Volcano canon. The intention was to make only a 
straight channel for a flume and make the pay out 
of the waste from the claims above. This did not 
pay, and in 1857 Thomas and John Goodwin, Cap- 
tain Richards, McGrath, and others, commenced 
blasting up through with the intention of lowering 
the outlet fifteen feet. The work was more expen- 
sive than was calculated, on account of the hardness 
of the rock, which would require a fresh drill every 
inch; and the work was abandoned by the company, 
and was finished by Gonan for the Amador Canal 
Company, to aid the sale of water. The channel 
was narrow and rough, and did not have the carry- 
ing capacity to convey the water in a rise, and it was 
found impracticable to keep it open, and was aban- 
doned. 

About the same time that the last project was 
started, Judge Black, a lawyer of Volcano, organized 
a company to tunnel through the canon, much like 
the present tunnel project, making a shorter tunnel 
with less depth for outlet. A few hundred dollars 
exhausted the resources of the projectors, who, not 
being practical miners, could not obtain the con- 
fidence of capitalists, and the project was soon 
abandoned. 

The largest population was in 1855, the place cast- 
ing nearly one thousand two hundred votes in. that 
season. The population was by no means permanent, 
having been attracted to the place by the reports of 
rich mines that w r ould pay down an indefinite depth. 
It remained at about that figure until the Table 
Mountain excitement in Tuolumne county, in 1856. 
That drew away a great many, and the Frazer River 
boom a year or two later, drew off a still greater 
number. Notwithstanding some discoveries in quartz 
and many good claims which continued to pay, the 
place showed a steady decrease in population until 



about 1870, when, in consequence of some important 
discoveries in quartz, notably the Uanford and Downs 
mine, the Golden Gate and the Pioneer, a reaction 
set in. Volcano may now be reckoned as a promis- 
ing town again. Some new buildings are being 
erected and old ones repaired and enlarged. 

FIRES. 

Volcano has had rather a large share of destruc- 
tion in this way. The first large fire occurred in 
August, 1853, commencing in the Eureka Hotel, 
kept by Myers. This occurred near midnight. The 
house had just been built, was a two-story building, 
costing perhaps five or six thousand dollars. There 
was no bell or other means of arousing the people, 
and the first alarm was the shooting of revolvers 
like fire-crackers, the progress of the fire being so 
rapid that the boarders had not time to remove their 
personal property. The building being of a light 
and combustible material, was soon consumed. The 
flames spread north towards the National Hotel, 
and south towards the creek, consuming several 
buildings, Myers and Duke (the latter owning the 
store at the junction of the old streets, near the 
present St. George, which is on the site of the old 
Eureka,) being the principal losers. But for the 
fact that there was a deep hole of water in the vicin- 
ity, the whole town would have burned. A line of 
buckets was quickly formed and a stream of water 
poured upon the adjacent buildings, and the fire 
stayed. 

THE LARGEST FIRE 

Occurred in November, 1859. This commenced in a 
bakery on the corner of Consolation and Main 
streets, about seven o'clock in the morning. The 
buildings were very dry, no rain having yet fallen. 
The hook and ladder company, the only organized 
fire company, attempted to arrest it by pulling down 
buildings, but without success, as the ruins could 
not be dragged out of the way in time to keep them 
from taking fire, and the buildings down the street 
as far as Thurston's store were all consumed. Dur- 
ing the early part of the fire it progressed towards 
the lower end of town against a gentle breeze from 
the south-east; but the wind soon freshened and 
drove it back on its first course, burning the build- 
ings on the back streets that had been saved in its 
first movement. The Mahoney Hall and the build- 
ings north of Consolation street were saved by 
covering them with wet blankets. There is no 
recorded list of losses obtainable, but the following 
are among some of the larger ones, the aggregate 
being about sixty thousand dollars : — 

Henry Fredericks $ 3,000 

J. Goldswortky. •___ 2,000 

Else Estate ........ .. 1.000 

Ballard's National House (built in 1851). 2,000 

Gerhard Spohn & Co. . . 3,000 

Fridenburg's Saloon and Bakery . . 4,000 

B. F. George's Empire Hotel (formerly 

Eureka) 10,000 



VOLCANO AND VICINITY. 



211 



The losses numbered about twenty-five, the build- 
ings being partially insured. It was late in the 
season, but by the first of January most of the 
burned district was rebuilt. The goods saved were 
stored in Clate's and Handford's stores until new 
ones were built. The town quickly recovered from 

this fire. 

fire of 1862, 

This occurred in October, and commenced in the 
St. George Hotel (formerly Empire, Eureka), in the 
kitchen roof, burning the whole block on which it 
stood. The fire was arrested by tearing down Je- 
rome's livery stable. 
Partial list of losses: — 

B. F. George $10,000 

Fridenburg's Saloon 4,000 

G. Spohn & Co... 3,000 

FIRE OF 1865. 

This commenced in a building north of Hanford's 
store, burning all on that side as far as Whiting's 
shop; all the wooden buildings across the street, 
including the old Volcano Hotel, built by Gemmil 
in 1851, several residences, also several China stores. 
This part of the town was the first built, and con- 
tained many old landmarks, such as Mahoney Hall, 
Philadelphia House * etc. Aggregate losses, twenty- 
five thousand dollars. 

LOYAL FLAG. 

Mahony Hall had been used as an armory by the 
Volcano Blues, an intensely loyal company. The 
flag was flying when the building took fire, and in 
the hurry and confusion jyas overlooked when they 
were compelled to leave the building, much to the 
regret of the Blues. The old flag refused to. burn 
or to fall, and waved in triumph until the tall flag- 
staff burned off, when it fell beyond the fire, and 
was saved by the boys, who made a rush for it. 

YEAR OF FIRES. 

The year 1868 was called the year of fires, no less 
than five having occurred. Most of the buildings 
burned had been insured when property was high, 
and the town prosperous. When the town began 
to decline, and property depreciate, the amount for 
which the buildings were insured was often greater 
than any sum for which they could be sold; hence 
a suspicion that the fires were not altogether acci- 
dental. The locality of the next fire was a matter 
of speculation based on the notoriously high insur- 
ance. The first fire was in Fabian's store, near the 
post-office, burning all on that side of the street 
to Hanford's store, six or eight buildings being 
destroyed. By extraordinary efforts of Kobert 
Stewart, Q. Mason, Pettis Williams, and Isaac Whit- 
ney, who stood on Goldsmith's saloon and kept it 
wet, the fire was prevented from crossing the street. 
Some of these men fought the fire so closely that 

*The writer had a residence for some time in one of these 
hotels iii 1S53, and begs leave to say if they were as densely 
populated as in that clay, the destruction of life was inevitably 
enormous. 



their clothes were charred on them. The losses 
were about fifteen thousand dollars. Two or three 
weeks after, eleven o'clock at night, the fire broke 
out in a saloon and bakery, on the corner of Consola- 
tion and Main streets, owned by George Schaffer, 
burning all on that side down to Burleson's store. 
The flames reached over the store, setting fire to 
the next building, but by courageous efforts the fire 
was stayed at that point. Losses, about six thou- 
sand dollars. The next fire was in the bend south 
of the creek, burning Sorrocco's store, with the con- 
tents. Loss, about twelve thousand dollars. The 
next, two weeks after, at eleven o'clock at night, 
commenced in the stable belonging to Nicolas & 
Wendal, butchers, communicating to Fridenburg's 
saloon and bakery, and Mrs. Hemlin's dwelling- 
house. Losses, about eight thousand dollars, all 
insured. Fulton's dwelling-house was burned the 
same season. The fire commenced in the night, and 
was quelled, as it was thought, but soon after the 
house was found to be again in flames, and was soon 
destroyed. 

hanford's store. 

One of the oldest and most expensive structures 
in town was burned in 1872. A kerosene lamp fell 
into the hatchway of the cellar, about nine o'clock 
in the evening, breaking in pieces and setting fire to 
the goods in the vicinity. The flames were extin- 
guished and no further trouble was apprehended, but 
the fire had unexpectedly communicated to the 
extensive stock of liquors, and flames were soon 
bursting out all over the cellar. A few minutes' 
attempt to put out the flames showed the doom of the 
building, and the hatchway was closed down, and as 
many goods removed as was possible, about four thou- 
sand dollars being saved. The removal of the goods, 
by as many as could work, was kept up until the floor 
commenced sinking, when all hands were ordered 
out and the doors closed. Soon after this the liquors, 
being raised to a boiling point by the great heat in 
the cellar, exploded, blowing out the rear of the store 
and raising the floors and roof a few feet, which fell 
in as they settled back, and the work of destruction 
was completed in a few minutes. 

As there are some reports in circulation to the 
effect that this fire was contemplated to get the 
insurance, the author has taken some trouble in 
getting the true history of the matter. The stories 
that the goods had been secretly removed and empty 
boxes substituted; that the cords on which the lamps 
were suspended had been arranged so as to burn off; 
that a train of combustibles had been laid so as to 
connect with the inflammable liquors, may be true, 
but considered in connection with the known facts, 
that ten thousand dollars had recently been added to 
the stock; that Hanford seriously risked his life in 
saving the goods, being almost dragged out of the 
building after the floor had commenced sinking; 
that he left his watch and many valuable relics in his 
desk, which were destroyed, they seemed so improb- 



212 



HISTORY OF AMADOU COUNTY/CALIFORNIA. 



able that the insurance companies did oo1 consider 
them worth notice. 

Che careful reader will notice thai the site of the 
present St. George, owned by A. Petty, has boon 
burned over three times, as well as the ground 
adjoining on the north. The first hotel, the Eureka, 
was burned in A.ugust, 1853; the second, by the same 
name. I'>. F. George proprietor, in 1859; it was next 
callo! the Empire, with the same proprietor, and was 
burned in L862. B. F. George seemed to rise with 
the necessities o!' the occasion and twice raised it 
over the ashes, each time better than before. It still 
lives, perhaps the best hotel in the county. 

miner's joke. 
In an early day, Major Shipman, a favorite of the 
public and several times a County Clerk and other- 
wise honored with office, was mining in a tunnel in 
Volcano. One day he was rather unfortunate, a 
piece of steel from his pick breaking off and cutting 
him severely over the eye. The wound was more 
frightful than dangerous, and it occui'red to him to 
sell some of his friends. He first called on the Good- 
win boys. They were alarmed at bis appearance, 
the blood running freely over his face, and inquired 
how he got hurt. He told them he had a difficulty 
with a man by the name of Steel, whom he found in 
his tunnel; further inquiry elicited the fact that the 
man was still in the tunnel, and was likely to stay 
there until he was brought out. They thought it a 
matter of prudence to take the body out of the tun- 
nel, for if found there it might make trouble when 
the miners found it out, and actually started off to 
remove the body, but returned when they found 
they were sold. They went to Jim Farley, known 
to be a warm friend of the Major's, and told him 
that Shipman had got into a serious difficulty. Far- 
ley immediately responded, and advised Shipman to 
leave the country, as the miners might lynch him if 
they got enraged, " if, as you say, every miner in 
the camp is a friend of Steel's." "Have you any 
money ?" says Farley. " None to speak of," replies 
Shipman. " Well," says Farley, " 1 have but little. 
I can get you two hundred dollars and a horse, and 
the sooner you are off the better." The Major's 
heart began to relent at the part he was playing, as 
Jim seemed to be quite alarmed, and the Major was 
obliged to explain. " Few and short were the 
prayers " Farley said, as he turned on his heel. " Oh, 
h 1!" — nothing more. 

PLEASANT NOCTURNAL VISITOR. 

Some time in the fifties, a showman, traveling with 
a tame bear, gave an exhibition at Mahoney Hall. 
During the following night, the bear escaped from 
its keepers, and started out in search of adventures. 
The rear part of the hall opened on the roofs and 
balconies of several buildings, and the bear made 
his way into a chamber occupied by a shoemaker, by 
the name of Poole, an odd, irascible character, who 
had been made the butt of many practical jokes. 



When he fell the bed-clothing being dragged off, he 
thought the boys were at their old tricks again. He 
made a grab for the intruder, and was lucky enough 
to catch him by the seal]). The supposed boy mak- 
ing no resistance, Poole's courage rose to the occa- 
sion, and he determined to light a match, and see 
who had so often disturbed bis slumbers. Now, 
Poole was considered the ugliest man in all those 
parts, his face, according to judges of physiognomy, 
indicating a decided progression, or divergence, 
towards the catfish type of animals. When the 
German match flashed into a bright flame, revealing 
the parties to each other, their astonishment was 
mutual. If Poole was terrified, so was the bear, 
which gave a horrible howl, and tumbled out of the 
window with all possible dispatch. 

MURDER OF BECKMAN IN 1853. 

This was attended with such unmitigated atrocities 
that the community was thoroughly aroused. Beck- 
man, a German, kept a store nearly in front of 
Mahoney Hall, and by his straightforward character 
had won the good opinion of all his acquaintances. 
One morning he did not open the store as usual. On 
examining the premises the rear door was found 
partly open, though not broken, and Beckman in his 
bunk alive, but speechless and insensible from a ter- 
rible cut with an ax, which had cleft his skull; the 
bloody ax, the broken safe or chest, in which he 
was known to keep his money, and other circum- 
stances, revealing the details and motives of the 
murder. It was ascertained that Chris, a German, 
mining on Mokelumne rivef in company with Harry 
Fox, an Englishman, had been in the habit of sleep- 
ing in the store on his occasional visits to the town; 
that he had been there at a late hour the previous 
evening. Other circumstances also pointed towards 
Chris and Harry as the criminals. 

After a fruitless search for several days it was 
learned that they had left the State by the emigrant 
road. They were afterwards recognized on a Nica- 
ragua steamer by an eastern bound passenger, who 
had them apprehended and sent to California by a 
return vessel. On their way up, Chris threw himself 
overboard and was drowned. Fox was carried to 
Mokelumne Hill, and placed in jail to await his trial. 
He soon after escaped, the ten thousand dollars of 
which Beckman was robbed, being, possibly, a fac- 
tor in the matter. The fugitives had made their 
way towards the East as far as Salt Lake, where, 
fancying they were pursued, they turned towards 
Mexico, and made their way towards where they 
were arrested. 

LYNCH LAW. 

The only execution in Yolcano under this code 
occurred in November, 1854. A young man from 
Arkansas, by the name of Messer, had, during the 
Summer, evinced a very bloodthh'sty spirit, evi- 
dently desirous of " getting away with his man" as 
soon as convenient. He wore a knife in a conspicu- 



'•■'■■•'. ■■-.." 







RESIDENCE^RANCH OF J.H.HOIMAN, NEAR PLYMOUTH, AMADOR C? CAL. 








Residence and Ranch of S.C.WHEELER, 
near Plymouth, Amador C°Cal. 



t-iTU.BKir-ro^Sk h'tv s-.y.^ 



VOLCANO AND VICINITY. 



213 



ous manner, and often boasted of his ability to cnt 
his way with it. He had already crippled for life a 
young man by the name of Byrne, in a trifling dis- 
pute over a game of cards, and, when the final 
offense was committed, there was no sympathy for 
him. 

In the Autumn of that year a family by the name 
of McAllister had located in the town. The father 
and mother were ignorant, uncultivated people, and 
felt rather flattered than otherwise with the numer- 
ous visits to their house, the chief attraction being a 
girl of perhaps fourteen years. One evening, Messer 
and his three or four companions were refused 
admission. By listening at the door they had ascer- 
tained that several men were already in the house, 
and Messer's companions urged him to clean them 
out, promising to " back 'him up." The door was 
fastened on the inside with a pin inserted in the door- 
post, a usual method of securing doors in new 
countries. Messer,- familiar with this kind of lock, 
succeeded in prying the pin out with the point of his 
knife, and, opening the door, entered with his com- 
panions. The old man expostulated with him, begged 
that he would make no disturbance, and it seemed, 
put his hand on Messer's shoulder, though with- 
out using any force, or trying to eject him. Messer 
drew his ever-ready knife, and, with a back-handed 
thrust, plunged it into the old man's bowels, com- 
pletely severing the liver from the body. The 
wound was of course fatal, the pallor of death com- 
ing over his features in an instant. This seemed to 
have satisfied Messer and his companions, who left 
immediately. Several young men in the house 
witnessed the affair, which was so sudden and unex- 
pected that they could offer no resistance. They 
were, apparently, too astonished to raise an alarm, 
and could hardly give a coherent account of the mur- 
der. Mrs. McAllister raised the neighbors by yelling 

at the top of her voice: " ■ , jiminy, send for 

a doctor! " with a persistency that under less serious 
circumstances would have been quite laughable. 

A general pursuit of the parties commenced, and 
Messer was apprehended in a short time and taken 
past the scene of the murder. He was now bellowing 
like a baby, his courage having failed at the sight of 
danger. The crowd passed over the bridge toward 
the town. At the Miners' restaurant they halted a 
moment. In answer to the question — " What shall 
we do with him?" the cry was "Hang him! hang 
him! " A proposition was made to do something for 
the widow, but no response was made. Up through 
the main street, every house helping to swell the 
stream, no voices, no sound but the dull tramji, 
tramp of hundreds of feet, the crowd made their 
way. At Consolation street they turned toward the 
Methodist church. Up that street, no one knew 
whither, to the foot of the hill, thence to the left, 
halting in a ravine to the north of the church where 
there was a leaning oak tree, the top of which was 
broken off twenty or thirty feet from the ground. 



There was no consultation, no form of a trial; every- 
thing seemed to be done by common consent. Here 
an unsuccessful attempt was made, by Constable 
Scott, to arrest the lynching. Messer seemed to 
have partially recovered his self-command, gave 
some directions as to the disposal of his property, 
and the payment of a few dollars he was owing in the 
town. His last words were to this effect: " If I was 
right in killing him, God will forgive me; if I am 
wrong, I hope Cod will punish him," evidently 
referring to himself. There was so little noise that 
persons sleeping in houses a little way off heard 
nothing of the affair, and were much astonished, 
when they awoke in the morning, at seeing a dead 
man hanging so near them. There was no frantic 
excitement or rage, usually manifested on such occa- 
sions. The hanging seemed a foregone conclusion 
from the start. 

Had this murder been committed by an influential 
man a quarter of a century later, a plea of hereditary 
insanity would probably have saved him from execu- 
tion or any other serious punishment. Messer was 
not insane ; he was simply acting his ideal of man- 
hood. He had been educated in that way ; was 
taught that a gentleman must " get away with his 
man." Though the murder was of the most atro- 
cious character, without the motive of anger, revenge 
or lust, purely wanton, some might say thoughtless, 
he placed himself on trial before bis Cod. " If I was 
right in killing him Cod will forgive me. If I was 
wrong I hope he will punish me." 

Men ought not to be punished for acting up to their 
instincts or convictions. Crime is the result of moral 
and physical infirmities, modified by education and 
circumstances, and to a great extent, is inevitable. 
Punishment is an absurdity, an impossibility. It 
does not restore the victim to his family or to society. 
The right to take the life of a criminal must rest on 
the broader ground of self-protection; that whether 
from choice or necessity, his further existence is not 
consistent with the security of life and property, and 
must cease. The present insecurity of life does not 
result so much from the want of law as from its refine- 
ments. The upper, not the lower classes, are now 
setting law at defiance. 

Substantial justice had been done without the 
forms or delays of the law. No friends claiming the 
body for burial, it was taken by the doctors and 
skeletonized, some of the attending circumstances 
being revolting. Portions of the body were said to 
have been devoured by hogs, which had discovered 
the pool of water into which the remains were placed 
to disintegrate the flesh from the bones. The skel- 
eton was used to illustrate public lectures on anatomy 
and physiology. All the circumstances were such as 
to strike those criminally inclined with terror, if such 
a thing were possible. Mark the result. Among the 
most prominent of the volunteer executioners were 
Dr. Goodwin, who was shot in a row at Snelling's 
ranch, Si Maynard, who was hanged by a mob for 



214 



BISTORV OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Btealing oattlo, and Johnson, who was banged in 
Sierra county for murder. Mansur, who assisted, died 
Bhortly aftorwards of consumption. These results 
are Dot related as retributive justice, but to show the 
frequent inutility of lynch law as a means ofrefornij 
or deterring others from committing crime. It often 
happens that in new countries like California crime 
precedes the organization of courts, compelling the 
community to fall back on the first principles of gov- 
ernment, by organizing in self-defense; but when it is 
necessary to anticipate courts, or supplement their 
inefficient authority by "Judge Lynch's" code, it 
should be done by those whose motives in undertak- 
ing it are unquestionable ; who look upon the pro- 
ceeding as a deplorable necessity, rather than as an 
act of vengeance. 

STAGE ROBBERIES. 

This place has become noted for the stage rob- 
beries occurring in the vicinity. The hill was usually 
selected for the operation, the early morning hour at 
which the stage started for Sacramento also favoring 
the robbers. The largest robbery occurred May 1, 
1872. A suspicion that an attack was contemplated 
caused the agent of the express company to send 
through a corresponding weight of l'ocks for several 
days, Avhich went without disturbance. One morn- 
ing the bullion, worth about ten thousand dollars, 
was started. It was thought that no one had a 
knowledge of the affair, but when near the top of 
the hill the driver, Dick Hipkins, was confronted by 
two masked men with revolvers, who ordered him to 
dismount, which he did. One of the men mounted 
the box, took the lines and drove the team a short 
distance into the timber where the horses were 
unhitched from the coach. The men then proceeded 
to detach the treasure box from the wagon, after 
which it was broken open with an ax. After having 
taken out the treasure, the robbers told Hipkins to 
proceed on his way, the robbers taking the road to 
Volcano. John N. Boardman was arrested for the 
robbery, tried and acquitted. Several prominent men 
were suspected, but no other arrests were made. 
The express agency was disestablished and the ship- 
pers of dust have experienced much inconvenience in 
consequence. 

miners' librae y association. 

Such a gathering of professional and literary men 
was sure to ripen into action. Some attempts were 
made by Robert Beth as early as 1850 to bring 
about a public library. Some of the merchants 
bought a stock of novels and light reading, which 
was loaned at ten cents a volume. The first organ- 
ized effort to get reading matter was in the Autumn 
of 185-1, when the "Miners' Library Association" 
was formed, with admission fees of one dollar, and 
monthly dues of twenty-five cents. Weekly meet- 
ings were held to discuss social, political, and scien- 
tific questions. Such talent as was obtainable was 
engaged for occasional lectures. The Baptist church, 
the building now going to ruin, was frequently filled 



with attentive and interested hearers. When a 
hundred dollars had been accumulated a list of books 
was ordered, and a respectable nucleus of a library 
formed. The institution ran smoothly for three or 
lour months, when a scries of revival meetings, held 
at the Methodist church, drew away the audience. 
The society made the mistake of neglecting to 
incorporate, and when the weekly meetings began to 
lose their interest, a rumor got into circulation that 
the society was broken up, whereupon a grab was 
made for the books, and the Library Association 
dissolved in a day or two, never to recover, as there 
was no power to compel restitution of books. Among 
the founders of this society, were John King, R. C. 
Jacobs, I. W. Whitney, Robert Stewart, Henry C. 
Foster, Charles, William, and Bartholomew Chapline, 
James Whitesides, J. D. Mason and others. 
dramatic societies. 

The Volcano Thespian Society was formed in the 
Winter of 1854-55. Many of the promoters of the 
defunct Library Association, threw their energies 
into this institution, and for a few months gave occa- 
sional exhibitions. " The Golden Farmer " was 
played, with James Whitesides for the farmer; R. C. 
Jacobs, for Elizabeth; Dr. Gibson, now of Stock- 
ton, for Jimmy Twitcher; other parts forgotten. 
James Rile was scene-painter. He was mining in 
Humbug gulch, and gave the society the benefit of 
his skill as a scenic painter, which was considerable, 
whenever a man was put in his place in the mine. 
Two young boys, by the name of Geo. Y. and Louis 
Miller, now stalwart, bearded men in San Francisco, 
made two handsome actresses. This institution gave 
the school a benefit or two, ran a few months until 
the evenings got too short for work, and collapsed. 
A wandering theatrical party afterwards borrowed 
the small property, and left without remembering to 
return it. 

About the time this society started, another put in 
appearance. The second one embraced some musical 
talent, and played for a few times; once for the 
benefit of the Baptist church. For the " benefit of 
the Baptist church," became a by-word; the gam- 
blers opened their games for the " benefit of the 
Baptist church." 

RUSSELL'S HILL. 

This is a gravel deposit on the line of the Volcano 

ridge, and probably belongs to the same range as 

Upper Rancheria. It was left in the great glacial 

. erosion which cut out the valleys north of Volcano. 

It was good for an ounce a da}' in early time. 

TORT JOHN 

Is a limestone deposit similar to Volcano, which 
place it bid fair to rival in 1850. Two or three men 
(names forgotten) who first mined here in '49, were 
killed by the Indians. P. Y. Cool, Thomas Rickey, 
and James, his son, mined here in 1850, previous to 
working quartz in Amador. They were instru- 
mental in building a church and school-house, per- 



VOLCANO AND VICINITY. 



215 



haps the first in the county. The deposits were 
neither extensive nor rich, and the place soon fell in 
the rear. In 1856 it contained a little one-horse 
store, with a dozen or more miners, who were said 
by those who visited the place, to be always waiting 
for water to come or go down, amusing themselves 
in the meantime with bean-poker. 

In 1850 several hundred miners made good pay on 
the flat; now one man, who has been there all these 
long years, is the sole inhabitant. He seems to have 
staid to point out the site of the former town,' and 
relate to occasional visitors the glories of the ancient 
days. He remembers where and when every event 
of note transpired. 

UPPER RANCHERIA. 

This is a continuation of the Eussell's hill lead, 
some of the gravel running under the deep lava bed 
in the vicinity. In 1856 to 1860 there were fifty or 
sixty miners here. Some fine structures, built of the 
indurated lava, from the adjoining hills, are still stand- 
ing, relics of the former glory of the town. The place 
is famous as the former residence of Jacob Emmin- 
ger, a Justice of the Peace, who sentenced a China- 
man to jail for life for stealing chickens. Upon 
being questioned about the matter, Jake denied the 
impeachment, but finally justified the matter by say- 
ing, "If I had not done so the crowd would have 
hung the poor fellow." Sam Loree now keeps a 
lonely watch over the site of the ancient town. 

AQUEDUCT CITY 

Is at the head of Grass valley, which was taken up 
in 1850 by James Dolan, as a ranch. It was after- 
wards sold to Thompson and Perrin, who fenced it 
and cut the grass for hay, which was worth sixty- 
five to one hundred dollars per ton. Mines were 
discovered near the head of the valley in 1850. It 
was first worked by a party of four or five, Braden 
& Co., who made a secret of the discovery, but not 
long, for one morning James Henry and party 
appeared and staked off claims. The new comers 
had not yet built cabins, and when the rain came, 
in September, they were sleeping in blankets on the 
ground. They got up and sat out the night astride 
of a log, with the blankets over their heads. There 
was no more rain of any account until Spring. The 
Huet claim was the richest in the camp. Prench 
gulch, coming into the valley near Ham's Hotel, was 
very rich. One man carried away fifty thousand 
dollars from it. Sleeper, Lucas, and Bisbee (Bob, 
now of Sutter Creek), had claims that would pay an 
ounce each for two or three hours' work. When 
they had made this, the day's work was finished, and 
they put on white shirts and mounted their horses 
for a ride to Jackson, or some other town. 

The water by the Ham ditch passed the Mokelumne 
divide at this place. An aqueduct one hundred and 
thirty feet high, carrying the water to the next 
ridge, gave name to the place, which, about the time 
of the cominu- of the water, had several hundred 



inhabitants, three hotels, 'two livery stables, three 
stores for general merchandise, one drug store, 
besides numerous saloons. The first store was kept 
by Henry, Graham & Biggs. 

The old residents of the place remember the sen- 
sation created by the two tall Bell sisters, who rode 
like centaurs, whenever they appeared on horse- 
back. The livery stables had several pairs of fine 
saddle horses, which were much in quest at that 
time. Dr. Crawford and the Johnston brothers had 
a saw-mill there, with quite a history. It was for- 
merly located in El Dorado county; some kind of 
attachment being laid on it, or expected, it was 
determined to move it into Amador county. The 
removal had to be done between Saturday night and 
Sunday morning, to prevent a legal process for 
injunction. The engineer, Underwood, afterwards 
of Amador, ran the mill as usual, but had loosened 
every bolt and nut possible, and, when twelve o'clock 
came, the mill was shut down, dismembered and 
loaded on a wagon, within an hour, the boilers hot, 
and the furnace fires still glowing. Sunday morn- 
ing found the place deserted, which caused the 
remark that Dr. Crawford, who planned the elope- 
ment, carried off a saw-mill while it was running. 
Before midnight it was in Amador county, beyond 
the reach of attachment. 

The gulches were soon worked out, and the hill 
diggings did not prove rich or permanent. The 
place now has a few families, one store, and one 
hotel. Captain Ham, the engineer and financier of 
the Ham ditch, resides here. Porty years of active 
life has not dulled his capacity for gigantic projects, 
one of his especial favorites being a canal which 
would transport the entire amount of wood and 
lumber in the Sierras to San Francisco. 

POTATO DIET. 

In the Winter of 1852-53, Major Shipman, Albert 
and Carter Land, had been prospecting a quartz 
vein near Grass Valley, boarding at Thompson & 
Perrin's, at twenty-one dollars per week. When 
the roads got so bad that they could not get pro- 
visions at all, Thompson & Perrin were obliged 
to close their- house. The Major had cultivated a 
small patch in potatoes the Summer before, and the 
party now started in on roast potatoes. Jim Henry, 
Ike Eastman, Jake Cook, and other boys at Grass 
Valley, being out of provisions also, were invited in, 
and they all lived like kings on roast potatoes until 
the storm was over, and the roads got so that better 
food could be obtained. 

CONTRERAS. 

Twenty-five years ago a party of Mexicans, led 
by Pablo Contreras, who seems to have been a man 
of much education and influence, was mining at this 
place, which was a few miles east from Volcano. 
There were numerous small veins of quartz, from 
three inches to eighteen inches in width. They were 
pocket veins, a thousand dollars being often found in 



216 



HISTORY OF LMADOB < 'OUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



a small Bpace A largo i iber of arastras \\ 

running, three of them bj water-power. There 
u. re several veins in tin- vicinity which were worked 
i.\ larger companies. The Belding vein, worked by 
I C. Belding of Sutter Creek, changed owners 
era! times, at twenty thousand dollars. The 
Thierkauf vein un- also rich, some good crushings 
being made. The wall rock- were mostly granite, 

and the vein- were soon exhausted. 'I'lie system 

belongs to 1 1 1 » - Wesl Point range, the Mace veins 
being a continuation of the same. The gold in some 
of these veins is so fine a- to We (inappreciable by the 
ordinary pro >f working, ('.ireful panning of 

I lie decayed quartz will sometimes show a thousand 
microscopic specks of gold, as fine as bronze, which 
will float off on the water. Tavernier, the noted 
caricaturist and painter, operated here for a while. 
Contreras had a family of very pretty and virtuous 
girls, who fascinated a score of young Americans, 
some of whom followed the family back to Mexico. 
The place had three or four hundred inhabitants at 
one time, and was worked for some years. Very 
little work is being done at present. 

ASHLAND, GRIZZLY HILL, AND WHEELER'S DIGGINGS. 

These are names of once flourishing mining camps, 
to the northward of the quartz veins last mentioned, 
on the different branches of Sutter creek. Ashland 
was worked by Colonel Bicknell and party. It 
-"inctimes paid as high as two ounces per day. 
Wheeler's diggings, on the north fork, were not quite 
so rich, but furnished remunerative employment 
some years for quite a number of men. In 1869, 
Mr. H. Parlin, James Hall, and Halsey, experi- 
enced miners, traced the pay into the hills or ridges 
between the hills, and in 1876, succeeded in carrying 
a stream of water on to the hill, developing prob- 
ably the best paying gravel mines in the county at 
the present time. James Hall, the present owner, 
has a tract of twenty acres, which will probably 
put him in easy circumstances for life. A ditch 
from the middle fork of Sutter creek, which runs 
nearly the whole season, supplies him with water; 
the elevation above the hill gives plenty of fall for 
tailings, and the quantity of ground, tAventy acres, 
ensures a life-long and profitable job. 

The deposit seems of an alluvial character, the 
stream running transversely to the present streams. 
The pebbles are little rounded, the boulders of curi- 
ous looking quartz, seen in many places lying near 
the veins of which they were once a part, showing 
that the stream or river was insignificant, running 
at a small depression. 

PLATSBURG, 

Or Prospect hill, one of the places that was, the former 
site being overgrown with pine trees, so thick as to 
deter even a rabbit from attempting to explore it, 
was in the vicinity of Foster's rancb, Hunt's gulch, 
Spanish gulch, and Whisky flat or Karney's diggings, 
belonging to the same cluster of gold deposits. 



Plattsburg ha- strong indications of being the bed 
of a river, the boulders being large and well rounded. 

When discovered it was a flat of a few acres in ex- 
tent, having four or five feet of gravel under two 
or three feet of red soil. In 1 *."> I and '55, it had forty 
Or fifty miners, bul was soon worked out. and deserted. 
When the place was discovered, Colonel Piatt and 
Judge dale, two lawyers, intent on immortalizing 
their names, played a ^amo of euchre to see whether 
it should be called Plattsburg or Galesburg; the for- 
mer winning, and giving it his name. 

hunt's gulch 

Heads on the Platsburg hill, a man by the name of 
Hunt working it at an early day. One day when 
Hunt was in Jackson he was informed by Evans, the 
gentlemanly proprietor of the Louisiana House, 
that a lady in the parlor wished to see him. As he 
was young and rather good looking, the request was 
not surprising, and be responded with alacrity. The 
lady had arrived that morning from the East, on her 
way to her husband, whose name was Steven Hunt, 
of Volcano. On inquiring for him she was much 
pleased to learn that he was in the bouse at the 
time. Evans was not aware that Hunt had no wife, 
and thought to give him an agreeable surprise. She 
clasped her arms around Hunt's neck, kissed him, 
and sunk her face, bathed with tears of joy, into 
his bosom, as any faithful wife would naturally do 
after a separation of years. After reposing there a 
moment she took a second and better look at his face 
and starting back with a look of about equal parts 
of alarm and indignation, exclaimed, "You are not 
my husband!" " No," says he, "unfortunately for 
me, I am not." A little inquiry elicited the fact that 
the true Steven Hunt was in Volcano, unconscious of 
the proximity of his wife. As the interested parties 
were sensible persons, there was no shooting or other 
display of foolishness. 

Spanish gulch emptied into the south branch near 
Hunt's gulch. It was worked in 1850 by James L. 
Halstead, who has been referred to before. It was 
said to be good at first but was abandoned in a year 
or two. 

Whisky Slide, where Andy Karney and Charlie 
Aekerly made a raise, was a flat near Spanish gulch, 
and probably was once the channel. It was good 
for an ounce a day. It was discovered about 1855 
by a rather ludicrous accident. The lucky discov- 
erers were in the habit of returning to their cabin 
late at night and in an inebriated condition. On one 
of these trips one of the party tumbled into a pros- 
pect hole. It was not deep enough to seriously 
injure him, but too deep for bim to climb out without 
aid. While tbe others were gone for ropes and a 
light, he took a notion to try some dirt from the bot- 
tom, and refused to come out until they gave him the 
means of getting a pan of dirt. When it was washed 
the next morning it proved to be rich, and was the 
starting-point for several fortunes. 




t*. :. \ -. - . 
BSc ". "•" ''-* *,* , 



^isif^L 





^^Ikisiili^fi 



Residence, Hotel and Ranch ofM« s MARGARET FOSTER, 
Amador Wagon Road, 6 Miles from Volcano, Amador, C° Cal. 



. / 






& 






•• 




Ranch and Residence df CHARLES BAMERT, 

NEAR MDKELUMNE RiVER, T. p N92.AMADOR. C° CAL . 



L/TM-a*irroM A/t£Y 9 t f. 






VOLCANO AND VICINITY. 



217 



CRYSTALS. 

Fine specimens of crystallized quartz, -of a smoky 
color by transmitted light, and black by reflected 
light, are found near Volcano. Mr. "Williams, near 
Peter Dentzler's house, has some fine specimens five 
or six inches in diameter. Some of these show the 
lines of deposit and are valuable for illustrating the 
processes of crystallization. 

CAVES. 

There are many caves around Volcano. Several 
of the smaller ones were discovered at an early day, 
but the large one Avas not explored until 1854. This 
is supposed to undei'lie the hill south of Stony Point. 
E. Sammis, with a party, is believed to have been 
the first to enter it. The opening, about eighteen 
inches across, is near the top of the hill, and 
descends rather precipitously to the water level, one 
hundred and fifty feet below, the distance on the 
slope being about two hundred. The first thorough 
exploration was made in the Summer of 1854 by a 
party of which the writer was one, the previous 
explorers having gone down but a short distance. 
The long rope was fastened to the rock at the sur- 
face, and the coil thrown forward and downward 
into the darkness. Several pounds of candles were 
taken along and placed in the soft clay, which 
formed the sloping floor of the cavern. The ad- 
vanced man of the party, not having a realizing 
sense of the abyss yawning below him, stood without 
fear on the steep slope, where a slip of the foot 
would have sent him sliding; to the bottom. As the 
descent pi*ogressed and the cave became lighted up, 
a vaulted chamber, large enough to contain the 
largest trees, came to view. Stalactites, or. rather 
crystals of rhomboidal.spar, sparkled like diamonds 
alT'TTver the roof. As the size of the cavern, and the 
depth and almost perpendicular descent, became 
apparent by the lighted candles a hundred feet 
below, all except the advanced portion of the party 
beat a retreat, the descent looking too dangerous. 
The courage of the first to descend was rather a 
matter of unconsciousness of danger, than a knowl- 
edge of the situation and a willingness to face it, as, 
when coming up, the at first fearless persons clung 
with a nervous feeling to the rope, nor dared to take 
a full breath until they were" well on their feet on the 
ground above. About one hundred feet from the 
surface a small space was found which was compara- 
tively level, affording a resting-place. From this 
place the cavern seemed to branch off in several 
directions; towards the north was a narrow fissure, 
or nearly vertical opening, corresponding in pitch 
and direction to the lines of cleavage of the country 
rock, and might have been, under other and more 
favorable circumstances, the location of a quartz vein ; 
in fact, the capping or roof of this fissure is a kind 
of jasper or ferruginous quartz. On the south side 
there was a perpendicular descent of perhaps twenty 
feet, and then another comparatively level place. 
So far the bottom or floor was soft clay, which, 
28 



apparently, had been washed in from the surface of 
the ground through the opening; but they now 
found the true floor, which seemed of infinitely 
small stalagmites, fine as snow, which crunched 
under the foot like frost. This formation was all 
destroyed in a short time by the tramping over it of 
numerous visitors. Some thirty or forty feet below 
this second flat or floor was the lake, a pool of clear 
water, sixty or eighty feet across, which is, proba- 
bly, the source of supply for the numerous cool 
springs in the vicinity. This last floor seemed to 
rest on numerous pillars of rhomboidal spar, which 
were originally stalactites, or pendant formations 
from the roof, which had grown by continual pre- 
cipitation of calcareous matter, until they united 
with the floor. Some of these columns were round, 
some thin and slab-like, the latter being the prevail- 
ing type. When struck they would give forth a 
peculiar bell-like, musical sound, each column having 
a different note, which reverberated through the 
cave like the sounds of an organ in a cathedral. 
One of these columns, a thin slab, perhaps three 
feet wide, one-fourth as thick, and fifteen feet high, 
had a peculiarly rich tone. In trying to see how 
loud it could be made to sound it was cracked, and 
its voice forever silenced. This act of vandalism has 
been, and always will be, a source of regret, though 
the other columns, in consequence of repeated ham- 
merings by subsequent visitors, were soon silenced 
and have given forth no song for a quarter of a cen- 
tury. The side caves were full of the beveled crys- 
tallizations, which, when broken off, fell to the bot- 
tom of the cave with a tinkling, jingling sound, as of 
a hundred tiny silver bells. The last-mentioned 
crystals, though formed of rhomboid spar, stood out 
from the walls in every conceivable direction, turning 
and bending into many shapes, according to the law 
of obtuse angles, prevailing with that variety of 
crystals. It is thought by some naturalists that 
they result from vapor containing lime, as it is 
impossible for them to have been for-med from drip- 
ping water, like stalactites or stalagmites. 

Soon after the discovery of the cave the entrance 
was enlarged, for the purpose of putting a stairway 
down, and making it a place of public resort. The 
project was abandoned, and in a short time the 
numerous visitors despoiled the cave of all the spar; 
and visitors of the present day can form no idea of 
its splendor twenty-five years ago. The other 
smaller caves had no curiosities like the large one. 
It is believed that the hill north of Volcano also 
contains a large cavern, as in many places water 
runs down that does not again make its appear- 
ance at the surface. The name of Volcano was 
given to the place, under the impression that the 
masses of chalcedony, carnelian, cacholong, onyx, 
and jasper, were of volcanic origin. Many beautiful 
specimens have been carried away, some of which 
were cut into jewelry. The composition is of silica, 
lime, red oxide of iron, and perhaps other minerals 



218 



IIISTOIIY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



in minute quantities, the color varying from trans- 
lucent to milky while or flesh color, as the minerals 
named, predominate in the mixture. They have 
mi value except as curiosities. The same formations 
on a smaller Bcale, may be Pound in many other 
places, especially in the Berpentine range in tlio 
western portion of the county. Pebbles of various 
kinds of agate, cut away from these ranges during 
the glacial era, may bo found on the plains wesl of 
the county line. They have the eame character 
and origin as the famous Pescadero pebbles found 
on the sea-beach near Santa Cruz. 



C II A P T E I! X X X I V. 

NORTH-WESTERN PART OF THE COUNTY. 

Sutter Creek — First Foundry — Knight's Foundry and Machine 
Shop — Planing Mill — Society at Sutter Creek — Schools and 
Sohool-Houses — Shipment of Gold — Fires — [ncorporation — 
Future Prosp Amador — Ministers — Placer Min 

Gold <>f Lower Rancheria — Oleta — Execution by Lynch Law 
— Killing of Carter by Doctor (Jnkles — Home Rule — Fatal 
Expl ision — Bad Case <>f Erysipelas — Lynch Law Vetoed — 
Tne Famous Safe Robbery — First Sehoul — Churches — Pres- 
ent Mining Prospects — Sewell's Addition — Cosumnes River 
— Amusirj I of Mimic,; Machinery — Famous Lynch- 

ing Affair at Jamison's Ranch. 

Though General Sutter and his party mined hero 
in 1S4S, there was little done until the discovery of 
quartz in 1851. In October, 1S40. persons passing 

through could see no evidence of any mining. There 
was a small, cloth tent at the crossing of the creek. 
owned by a man by the name of Jackson, from 
Oregon, where meat, whisky, and some provisions. 
were sold. A few miners gathered here on Sundays 
when the weather did not permit them to go to Dry- 
town or Jackson. After the discovery of the quartz 
mines on the north side of the creek, the gulches 
and flats began to be worked. The placers were 
only moderately rich. Perhaps the streams making 
off of Tucker hill were as good as any. A report is 
current that a twenty-five pound lump was found in 
the ravine below the Lincoln & Mahoney mills, but it 
cannot be traced to any reliable source. The gulch 
below the Ilayward mine was only moderately rich. 
Indeed, it seemsquite certain that a vein which has 
enriched many gulches has nothing left for milling 
purposes. Gopher flat, above the town, was worked 
mostly by Spaniards, by drifting from one hole to 
another, only a lew feet below the surface. Some- 
times the dirt was carted to Sutter creek to be 
washed. The hills east of the town are gravel 
deposits of the pliocene period. Though worked in 
many places, they were only moderately rich. They 
are interesting as showing the course of the streams 
in past ages. One may still trace the directions by 
the bodies of gravel left in many places. The divide 
between Amador and Sutter is full of interesting 
poiuts. showing a river running towards the west 
before the close of the volcanic period. Four or five 
miles west of Sutter this stream seems to have ter- 
minated in a precipitous fall, boulders of many 
tons in weight, some of granite and others of vol- 



canic matter, being piled in a confused mass. Some 
lew places along this line have been mined out, but, 
as in nearly all the rivers of the volcanic period, 
the irruptions of lava kept the stream from wearing 
away the beds of auriferous slates, the sources of'the 
river gold. On the south side of Sutter creek is the 
largest stream of volcanic gravel in the count)-, 
which may be traced from Prospect Rock twenty- 
live miles east of Volcano, to some miles west of 
lone, where it spread out into the ocean. This chan- 
nel is remarkable as having at one time in the vol- 
canic period a body of hot lava running from the 
summit to the sea. What a sight for the primeval 
man, which, according to Whitney, must have lived 
here at that time. 

The mining here at first was of a primitive order, 
the rocker being the main reliance for separating 
the gold. In the Spring of 1850, a great improve- 
ment was introduced. Jim Wheeler, Boz. Goodrich, 
and Dick Moulton, brought a long torn, which was 
first used in the northern mines, from Sacramento. 
It was a daring innovation, and, like most new 
things, was unmercifully ridiculed by the conserva- 
tive portion of the miners. It was only seven feet 
long, and sixteen inches wide. Small as it was, it 
effected a great saving of labor, and was soon brought 
into general use, though a year later it was displaced 
by the string of sluices, which enabled men to make 
wages out of still poorer dirt. After the discovery 
of the quartz mines, the energy of the best men of 
the camp was turned in that direction, and placer 
mining became a minor interest. The development 
of quartz mining, which built up the most flourish- 
ing town in Amador county, that annually sent a 
million or more of dollars into the general circula- 
tion, is described in another chapter. 

The first families in the place were those of Mcln- 
tyro, Stewart, Jones, Tucker, Rice, and Hanford. 
E. B. MxTn tyre's family, as well as Levi Hanford's, 
came in 1852. Some of these families were from the 
frontier, and others from the East, and the Yankees, 
and the extreme southerners and westerners, met 
here for the first time. Thirty years after, when 
these streams are flowing in the same channel, mar- 
riage and intermarriage having obliterated nearly 
every distinction, the aversion which they enter- 
tained towards each other has become the subject 
of much merriment. 

Mrs. Mclntyre tried to start a Sunday-school, but 
could get only three or four children to attend. 
Mr. Barlow, from Drytown, acted as Superintendent, 
Mr. Davidson and Mr. Glover, of the Amador quartz 
mines, preached occasionally, as did I. B. Fish, who 
was stationed at Mokelumne Hill. The preaching 
was usually in the school-room; sometimes in an 
unfinished room in Harding's Hotel. Money was 
raised to buy a Sunday-school library. Robert 
McLellan is remembered as having donated five 
dollars. "Dick's Works" were among the books 
bouo-ht. 



NORTH-WESTERN PART OF THE COUNTY. 



219 



The first church was built in I860, and dedicated in 
1863 by Doctor Thomas, who was slain by the 
Modocs. This church has been occupied by the 
Methodists since that time. 

Mrs. Rice, now living here, is remembered as the 
first person who wore a store bonnet to meeting. This, 
with blue silk gloves and some other finery recently 
imported from the East, was quite enough to distract 
the less fortunate sisters, and turn their thoughts 
away from holy things. 

The first school was taught by N. Harding, who 
received seventy-five dollai's per month. This was 
raised mostly by subscription. Judge Carter, now 
of lone, who happened to be present, generously 
donated ten dollars toward it. Mr. Harding sent one 
child, Mclntyre one, Stewart two, Mrs. Jones on*' 
others to the number of twelve in all. Sutter Creek 
since has been noted for its interest in educational 
matters. E. 13. Mclntyre was the first County Super- 
intendent. He remembers that it was extremely 
difficult to get the trustees to report to him, the law 
permitting no apjM'opriation of money without an 
annual report from the districts. 

The first wedding was in the boarding-house of 
the quartz mine (afterwards the Lincoln mine). The 

bridegroom was named Dick; the bride was a 

girl living with the family that did the cooking. 
The town boys honored them with a serenade and 
charivari. Soon afterwards Allen Tibbetts was mar- 
ried to Letitia Tucker; and Dwight Crandall, after- 
wards State Senator, to Mary Jones. 

FIRST FOUNDRY. 

Soon after the commencement of quartz mining, 
the want of a machine shop and foundry induced a 
small beginning in this way at the lower end of the 
town near the water-mill of the Lincoln mine. As 
it was a small affair and did not answer the purpose, 
it was removed to the present site, and enlarged so 
that the smaller parts of the quartz mills, such as 
dies, stamps, etc., could be cast, utilizing the worn- 
out castings. Frank Tibbetts was the proprietor 
for many years. The machine shops and melting 
capacity have been enlarged until now almost any 
required machinery can be put up, the cupola 
having a capacity of four tons. They have several 
large lathes, some of which have a swing of four- 
teen feet. The works are run by water-power. 
Water-wheels are a specialty with them. The one 
used by the Empire mill, at Plj-mouth, made by them, 
runs eighty stamps, with a head of six hundred inches 
at a pressure of sixty feet. Dan. Donnelly & Co. own 
the works. Several of the best mills in Amador and 
the adjoining counties, have been constructed by 
them. About one million pounds of castings are 
turned out annually. 

kxight's foundry and machine shop. 

This was established in 1 S73 to construct Avater- 
wheels of a peculiar character, calculated to utilize 
small heads of water at a high pressure. Though 



no new principle was discovered, the adaptation of 
old ones to new conditions has all the merit of a dis- 
covery. A small wheel, seven or eight feet in diam- 
eter, looking much like a cart-wheel with a rim of 
tea-cups, drives a quartz mill of eighty stamps, with 
all the necessary shaking tables and amalgamators. 
The opening through Avhich the water strikes the 
wheel, contains only two and a quarter square 
inches, and the gate to this is so arranged that it 
may be reduced to any desired size, running half or 
a quarter of the stamps, keeping the tube or pipe 
from which the power is derived, full, thus utilizing 
the whole pressure. The Amador mill is driven by 
a wheel of this kind, utilizing the five hundred feet 
fall from the Amador canal to the mill. The wheels 
are in use throughout this State, Nevada, Arizona, 
and Utah. The works have been enlarged until any 
sized machinery needed in mining can be con- 
structed. Seven to ten tons a week is the usual 
amount of melting. They have about thirty thou- 
sand dollars invested in the foundry and machine 
shops. 

PLANING MILL. 

The Walkmeister brothers have started a planing 
mill near Sutter Creek, where all kinds of fine work is 
done equal to the best of city work. The machinery 
is driven by water-power, the water being used again 
by the miners at Amador. 

SOCIETY AT SUTTER CREEK. 

Though a large portion of the population is made 
up of a class that is not noted for refinement or cul- 
ture, there has always been a nucleus of highly 
cultivated and refined people, as any one would per- 
ceive who took the pains to stroll around the town. 
Among the many families who have in times past 
contributed to this result may be mentioned the fam- 
ilies Dunlap, Wildman, Belding, Hanford, Downs, 
Sewart, Mclntyre, Keyes and Corliss. 

There has always been a choir of good singers, 
which lead the public taste in the county, principally 
through the industry and devotion of E. F. Hughes, 
Mrs. Dudley, Mrs. Keyes, and others. 

SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL-HOUSES. 

This place has always been noted for the educa- 
tional interest manifested ; not always harmonious 
in its operation, but resulting, as it is believed, in sub- 
stantial success. The first school-house built, some 
twenty-five j-ears since, was burned, as it is thought, 
by the act of an incendiary. After a pi*oper agita- 
tion of the matter an election was ordered to 
determine whether a sum to build a school-house 
should be raised by a property tax. The result was 
a school-house costing perhaps ten thousand dollars, 
the best one in the county, if not in the mountains. 

THE SHIPMENT OF GOLD 

Through Wells, Fargo and Co.'s, express will show 
the relatively prosperous years. No account was 
kept previous to 1870, though the annual amounts 



•J I 



IIISToKV OF AMADOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



often reaohed one million dollars, since then the 
amounts bave been, — 

1-71 $412 L875 $517,669 

1872 645,135 1876 .... 516,615 

1873 530,112 1S77 517,548 
1-7 1 163,500 1878 149,675 

1879 $185,194. 

I'lltKS. 

Sutter Creek bas had its share of the destructive 
element. The largesl lire happened September 9, 
1865. The following is a list of the losses: — 

Antonio Garbini $ 500 

Bishop & Kelly 600 

McHenry & Tibbitts 4,000 

C. E. Armstrong. . 4.000 

Nickerson & Joy 1,200 

J. Steinmetz 2,000 

E. W. Bice 1,000 

J. C. McDonald ._ 1,000 

\V. B. Hubble^ 600 

Odd Fellows 500 

W. E. Fifield 3,500 

J. D. Dennis.- 1,800 

Hay ward & Chamberlain 1,000 

Joseph King - _ 4,000 

John B. Keyes . . 500 

Bright & Datch 700 

M. Shields 500 

J. Cuneo 500 

J. Devoto 300 

Italian 200 

J. Mahoney 200 

Mrs. Armeandes 250 

C. Weller 400 

W. T. Wildman 250 

Thomas Grady 600 

W. Schauffer 600 

D. Myers 800 

1. X. Bandolph 5.000 

Brinn & Newman 1.750 

V. Lutnesky 500 

M . Silver. 500 

P. Fagan... 4,000 

Eandolph & Warkins. 1,500 

This included all the business portion of the town. 
It was soon rebuilt better than before, and enjoyed 
a greater prosperity, in consequence of mining devel- 
opment, than ever. A smaller fire had occurred 
about the first of September, 1862, shortly after the 
big fire at Jackson, burning nearly all the buildings 
on Humbug hill, including Wildman's store, Bird- 
sail's store, Bice's blacksmith shop and dwelling. 
This fire was at last stayed at the butcher shop at 
the foot of the hill. 

INCORPORATION. 

Sutter Creek incorporated as early as 1856, under 
the general law for incorporation. The organization 
was found to be defective in many respects, and in 



I 187i!. it was re-incorporated by a special Act of the 
Legislature, an election for township officers being 
ordered,February 12th. The government was invested 
in a Board of Trustees (five in number), Town Mar- 
shal and Clerk, to be elected annually. The Trustees 
were authorized to purchase the necessary real estate 
on which to erect a jail, and other necessary build- 
ings; to assess taxes not exceeding one per cent, on 
the whole taxable property, no assessments, how- 
ever, to be made on mines except the improvements 
which were above ground; to assess a poll-tax of 
not more than two dollars; to determine and abate 
nuisances; to prevent animals from running at large; 
to prevent and punish disorderly conduct; to license 
-how- theaters, hawkers, and peddlers; and to make 
all necessary regulations not inconsistent with the 
general law. The Marshal was to receive seventy- 
five dollars per year for collecting taxes, and to have 
a salary not exceeding one hundred dollars per 
month. The Town Becorder was to have the juris- 
diction of a Justice of the Peace, and to pay all fines 
over to the Treasurer, who was to receive one-half 
of one per cent, for receiving and disbursing money. 
The Clerk was to receive no salary. 

The effect of the organization was found to be 
salutary. A number of hoodlums, who had rendered 
night hideous and the streets disagreeable, dan- 
gerous even, to females especially, found themselves 
confronted with a lodging in a calabose, for any dis- 
orderly conduct. Nuisances were now removed at 
the expense of the authors. Boys were inquired to 
be at home at eight o'clock, and there was a marked 
improvement in the appearance of the town, espe- 
cially after night-fall. 

FUTURE PROSPECTS. 

At this writing (1881), the town is in a depressed 
condition, owing to the suspension of mining opera- 
tions. It is by no means certain that Sutter creek 
is ''worked out;" on the contrary, but little of the 
ground is even prospected,, a few hundred feet of many 
thousands, only, having been explored. No one 
knows what chimneys of rich ore are slumbering 
"just below," waiting for the miner to lay bare its 
wealth. 

AMADOR, 

Situated on the Mother Lode, where it is inter- 
sected by Amador creek, about seven miles north of 
Jackson, was mined soon after the discovery of gold. 
Some Oregon men built two cabins, and stayed dur- 
ing the Winter. James T. Wheeler and four others 
built a large double cabin in the Fall of 1849, near 
where the Spring Hill mill was afterwards built. 
Some men from Virginia also built a cabin and kept 
a stock of goods, mining at the same time. W. H. 
Mitchell, William JLiesaw, J. A. Tucker, Joseph 

Wright, Silas Beed, Ashley, and Willson, are 

names •remembered of the company who wintered 
here in 1849. Silas Beed was a famous hunter, and 
kept the camp supplied with game. 



ilU 










Residence of FR, HERMAN. Sutter Creek, Amador C° Cal. 




Residence of FATHER P. BERMINGHAM. Sutter Creek, 

Amador C° Cal. 



NORTH-WESTERN PART OF THE COUNTY. 



221 



MINISTERS. 

Mr. Ashley was a minister of striking appearance, 
wearing green spectacles for weak eyes, slender in 
form, helpless in appearance, of soft and humble 
address, being one of those who prefer laboring 
where there is a well-furnished parsonage, with a 
membership of weak sisters who are satisfied with 
milk and water sermons. Finding the preaching of 
the gospel an up-hill business among the rough 
miners, he turned to mining for a living, but accord- 
ing to the testimony of his neighbors, " He did not 
have energy enough to dig a hole in a day big 
enough to bury a cat," and failed as a miner. Sev- 
eral persons died of cholera during the Fall. On one 
occasion he was requested by some miners to attend 
the burial of a man, putting a man and neighbor 
into the ground without* some marks of respect not 
having become common. Ashley refused to go, say- 
ing he was not in that line of business. His friends 
raised money and sent him back East as a flower too 
frail for a new settlement. 

This man was not one of the firm of ministers, 
Davidson, Glover, Herbert, & Cool, who in 1851 
settled in Amador and commenced quartz mining. 
These were all working men as well as preachers, 
ready to bear their part in any labor or hardships 
necessary to develop a new country. Willson had a 
family, the first who resided in Amador. He kept a 
store, the same which was afterwards occupied by 
Ilanford & Downs, in the Spring of 1850. When 
Hanford's family came out, he located in Sutter 
Creek, moving to Volnano in the Spring of 1853. 

PLACER MINES. 

The mines were never as rich as at Drytown and 
other places, the gold being rather fine. Twelve to 
twenty dollars per day was considered good work in 
the best days. When the water failed in the Spring, 
the larger portion of the population left. Amador 
was better than Sutter Creek, and had much the 
largest population previous to the discovery of the 
quartz mines. Like Sutter Creek, its history is 
mostly in connection with quartz mining, which has 
received an exhaustive notice in a special chapter. 

LOWER RANCHERIA 

Is about two miles east from Drytown, and is about 
one mile east of the Mother Lode. Quartz mountain, 
and the other veins of the same formation, are sup- 
posed to have enriched the flats and gulches around 
this place, which were worked in 1848, and some 
years after, with great success. From all accounts, 
Deep gulch and Slate gulch were as rich as an3 r 
places in Amador county, as much as ten thousand 
dollars being taken from a claim fifteen feet square 
and three feet deep. Lumps were found at the foot 
of Deep gulch weighing twelve pounds. John Eagon, 
who mined here in an early day, picked up a piece 
which was worth about one thousand dollars. The 
mines were first worked by Major Redding and his 



party in 1848. One of his men had a dozen bottles 
full of gold-dust. Quite a number of Americans 
mined here in 1849 and '50; during the latter year, 
several persons, who preached in the eastern States, 
settled here, but abandoned the profession as incon- 
venient and unprofitable. 

The population was much mixed, the Mexican and 
Chilean predominating. The camp at one time had 
five or six hundred people, gambling with its usual 
accompaniments being the usual recreation. Som- 
breros, serapes, knives, horses, and jingling spurs were 
the striking features in every gathering. In Sep- 
tember, 1852, a Mexican stabbed a Dutchman, for 
which he was whipped. The Dutchman dying some- 
time after the stabbing, the people reconsidered the 
whipping and hung the Mexican. 

The character of the population remained much 
the same until 1855. After the occurrence of the 
dreadful tragedy, an account of which has been 
given in the County History, the place has been 
avoided by the Mexican population. 

Lower Rancheria is remarkable in the history of 
mining as being on a break of the hanging-wall of 
the great Mother Lode, being enriched by a system 
of veins perhaps three thousand feet to the east. 
The pitch of the lode on the west of this is as much 
as forty-five degrees, so that if the veins were fol- 
lowed three or four thousand feet, a position nearly 
perpendicular to Quartz mountain would be reached. 
The fact that one such break in the overlying 
rock hanging-wall has been found, maybe an induce- 
ment to look for others. 

The valley, which is evidently a glacier erosion, 
is now the site of a beautiful farm owned by R. D. 
Ford. The graves of the parties murdered are care- 
fully fenced in, and form about the only reminder 
of the terrible tragedy of August 6, 1855. The old 
broken safe of Dl nan's store, forms the support of 
one corner of a barn. There are but few persons 
to be found who have any memory of the transaction; 
and rosy-cheeked, innocent children romp and play, 
where a quarter of a century since the very ground 
seemed accursed, for the crimes it had witnessed. 

Some two miles above the site of the old town, is 
the ranch formerly owned by J3urt and Pei'kins. 
In 1851—52, this furnished a large quantity of vege- 
tables for the miners; and with its green patches of 
cultivated land, was like a gem set in the brown 
hills. Perkins, one of the owners, had sold his share 
of the place, and with his savings, about six thou- 
sand dollars, started for Sacramento, on his way 
home. While he was passing through a point of 
chaparral, he was shot and robbed by some con- 
cealed party. Though his body was discovered 
before it was quite cold, no clue to the murder was 
obtained for many years. It is now said that a big, 
one-eyed Indian, who formerly lived around Volcano, 
confessed to the murder of Perkins, and several 
other white men, some years since. Burt after- 
wards lived on this ranch, planted a large orchard, 



222 



lllsTonv OF AMADoi: COUNT? CALIFORNIA. 



built :i -aw mill, and otherwise improved the place. 
The orohard is still one of the besl in the county. 

i i \ FORM ERI/J FIDDLETOWN. 

It may be well to give the origin of the first, as 
well as the last name. The place was settled in 
1849 by a party from Missouri. The early records 
Of the settlement, if kept, are lost, and only tradi- 
tion is left tO are. mnt for t he musical name. It 
became oeoessary to name the young town. "They 
are always fiddling," says an old .Missouri patri- 
aroh, "call it Fiddletown;" and Fiddletown it was. 
not only when it was a hamlet of three or fourwag- 
0D8 and a tent, but when it was a town of large 
streets and a hundred houses, some of brick and 
stone. Judge Purinton is said to have started the 
movement for the change of name, which was done 
by Act of the Legislature, in 1878. In his annual 
trips to the capital, or San Francisco, he saw his 
name among the arrivals as C. A. Purinton, Fiddle- 
town. Merchants on the lookout for a customer 
would come across the man from Fiddletown. The 
hotel clerks would grow a trifle more dignified as the 
ominous Fiddletown was attached to his name. The 
hest of hats, faultless coat, gloves and boots, were 
of no avail as long as the name was anchored to Fid- 
dletown. The first settlers certainly manifested little 
taste in the selection of names. Poompoomatee they 
metamorphosed into Suckertoion. Eveiy Spring where 
the Indians camped had a name, generally sonorous 
and sweet, with a meaning sometimes full of poetry. 
What possessed men to baptize places Hogtown, 
Helltown. Shirt-tail, to say nothing of names which 
cannot be repeated, is a phenomenon to be exjilained. 
Oleta was settled in 1849, and had but a small growth 
until after the discovery of American flat, French 
flat, and American hill, in 1852. Previous to that 
the houses could be counted on one's fingers. Cap- 
tain Stowers, in company with Carter and Curtis, 
kept the hotel which had the eminent distinction of 
having a real glass window. The bar-room was 
also sitting-room, dining-room and bed-room, the 
beds being potatoe sacks stretched across poles, fur- 
nished with blankets, but no pillows, -a man's boots 
being expected to serve that purpose. The floor 
was the original red soil, sprinkled, swept, and 
tramped every day. There were two stores, one 
kept by Jesse Hendricks, long since passed away, 
and another kept by Gilbert. Saloon3 outnum- 
bered, as usual, all other places of business. Dr. 
Unkles, a little, old man, perhaps five feet four 
inches in height, kept a drug store in a house about 
six feet by eight, made of shakes stuck endwise in 
the ground. A few rows of bottles on a shelf or 
two contained the entire stock of drugs. A French- 
man, name forgotten, was blacksmith, gunsmith, 
machinist, and gasconader, for, according to his 
account of himself, he was a most terrible man. 
The country was quite good in places, but as there 
were no permauent streams of water, there was an 
abundance of waiting and little work. Oleta early 



developed a spirit of -elf government. The inhabit- 
ants soon staked oil' all known auriferous ground, 
and held it againsl all suspicious new-comers. Cap- 
tain Stowers was usually the spokesman of this com- 
mittee of safety. When strangers with their frying- 
pan, coffee-pot, pick, pan. shovels and blankets, came 
into town and evinced any intention of tarrying, the 
old gentleman generally managed to find out what 
State they were from, how long they had been in the 
State, and where they had been mining. If the 
answer was considered favorable, a committee would 
show him where he could locate ground. The 
writer of this article, then one of the interviewed, 
could find no resting-place nearer than the south 
fork of Dry creek, three, miles away. Mrs. Gilbert, 
afterwards wife of W. T. Gist, was then the only 
white woman in the town. 

The Summer of '52 witnessed a large accession to 
the population. In that year several families of the 
highest respectability located in and around the town, 
among whom were those of R. M. Briggs, the dis- 
tinguished lawyer, LaGrave, afterwards Treasurer 
of the county, McKensie, Stribling, Bain, Votaw, and 
others whose names cannot be recalled. The first 
wedding was that of E. B. Yates to Miss Scott, mem- 
ber of the numerous and respectable family of that 
name. A large party was made to welcome the 
bride to the town. 

In that year many respectable buildings were put 
up, anions; which was the United States Hotel, then 
kept by McDevitt & Cope, the latter person having 
since been a Judge of the Supreme Court and now an 
eminent lawyer in San Francisco. The discovery of 
American flat and hill was made by Jerry Ruth, 
George Schoemaker and Samuel JSTase ; Charles Mc- 
Lain, Samuel Parker, J. W. Croff and William Dunn 
also had claims there. This discovery was made on 
the south-west side of the hill, about the same time 
that a French party of five men, who were working 
the place called French flat on the east side, traced 
the deposit into the hill on that side. The channel 
was from three hundred to five hundred feet wide, 
the pay gravel being from five to seven feet thick. 
The Frenchmen are said to have carried away two 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, though this may 
have been too high an estimate. The deposit was 
one of the ancient streams, and probably derived its 
gold from a pocket-vein of quartz in the immediate 
vicinity. A slab from a big boulder dumped out the 
mouth of a tunnel, was found years after, when the 
tunnel had fallen in, to be very rich. The ancient 
river deposits in the vicinity are very extensive, 
though in no instance as rich as the American Hill. 
Loafer flat and hill seem to be a continuation of the 
channel towards Dry creek, but the gravel as far as 
explored is smaller, having but little resemblance to 
the American hill gravel. The same may be said of 
Lone hill, also the ridge between Suckcrtown and 
Slate creek, all having gravel in paying quantities. 
At the time the French flat was being worked a 



NORTH-WESTERN PART OF THE COUNTY. 



223 



vein of quartz was discovered which seemed riveted 
through with gold, but it did not prove to be per- 
manent, or as the miners term it, a true fissure vein. 

Oleta occupied an anomalous position with respect 
to county governments. El Dorado was bounded on 
the south by Dry creek and Calaveras, on the north 
by Dry creek. There were two forks of about equal 
size, Fiddletown being between the two. For vot- 
ing purposes the strip of intervening territory on 
which stood Fiddletown, or rather Oleta, was in 
El Dorado county, but when taxes were called for it 
was neutral territory! as was Vermont in the Revo- 
lutionary war, belonging neither to New Hampshire 
nor New York. Fiddletown did not prove a harbor 
for thieves, but rather the reverse, setting up courts 
of its own to administer justice.- 

The first court under home rule was held in 1851. 
There had been, as was believed, an organized band 
of horse thieves operating in the present territory of 
Amador, with, head-quarters at lone. The matter 
had gone so far as to be brought before the Grand 
Jury of Calaveras, without, however, convicting any 
one. A man by the name of West was arrested in 
Fiddletown for stealing a horse. Major Shipman, 
then residing there, was appointed Judge. He was 
familiar with law forms, having been a Magistrate, 
also County Clerk, in some of the older States. 
Witnesses were sworn, and the whole proceedings 
conducted in accordance with the form and spirit of 
the law, without its technicalities. The jury found 
him guilty and fixed his punishment at one hundred 
stripes. His fortitude gave way at this severe sen- 
tence, and he agreed if they would mitigate the pun- 
ishment to thirty stripes he would make such state- 
ments as would expose the whole gang, enabling the 
people to convict them all. The thirty stripes were 
first administered by Abe De Haven, a powerful 
man, after which he made a statement in private to 
E. Walker and Major Shipman, it being deemed best 
not to have the statement made in public, as beino- 
likely to interfere with the arrest of the aano- 

A man by the name of Mills, a New Yorker of 
good family and education, was brought to trial. 
He had many friends, and was furnished with money 
and a lawyer to defend him. Judge Carter of lone 
undertook his defense. He brought logic and pathos 
to bear, and finally induced the jury to bring in a 
verdict of not guilty, on condition that he would 
leave the country immediately. He went back to 
lone, which, as Oleta was an independent community, 
he considered complying with the sentence. He 
soon left the county, however, and was afterward 
shot, as was said, while engaged in unlawful act. 

A tax gatherer from Coloma, the county seat of 
El Dorado, put in an appearance one day and ex- 
pressed the determination to collect poll-tax from 
every one in the place. He stopped long enough to 
take a drink or two, and was sped on his way by 
numerous threats, backed by revolvers, with his 
purse no heavier for poll-taxes. 



EXECUTION BY LYNCH LAW. 

In the Autumn of 1852, a man. passing by the 
name of "one-armed Smith " turned out an old and 
worn-out horse, supposed to be worth about five 
dollars, to graze. A Mexican, seeing it apparently 
without an owner, put a saddle on it and rode a 
short distance, without attempting to take it out 
of the country, however. He was apprehended, and 
hung on a tree north-west of the town. While the 
trial was in progress, E. R. Yates, the Magistrate, 
"ordered Walker, the Constable, to quell the riot. 
The result was, to use the words of Abe De Haven, 
" Hast, come out and ordered us to stop. I was about 
to slay him right and lrft, ivhen he jumped back and 
says, don't you understand '■?" from which it was 
inferred that no very serious opposition to the exe- 
cution was intended. 

KILLING OF CARTER BY DR. UNKLES. 

Some ill-feeling existed on the part of Captain 
Stowers, Carter, .and Curtis, towards Unkles, in 
consequence of a misunderstanding in some com- 
mercial transaction. Captain Stowers went into the 
old man's drug-shop, gave the bottles a sweep with 
his cane, exclaiming, "This settles my account." 
Carter had his to settle also, and went, with some 
others, to the door of the cabin, and commenced 
abusing the Doctor. There was scarcely room for 
more than two or three men in the little box, and 
as they (Carter and his party) commenced crowd- 
ing in, he met them and civilly requested them to 
stay out; that he wanted no trouble with them; that 
they evidently intended no good. This remonstrance 
not being heeded, he drew a small pocket-knife, and 
began thrusting and making passes at Carter, the 
foremost man in the crowd. Little attention was 
paid to his words or his thrusts, but the old man 
was in earnest. With an instinct born of his knowl- 
edge of anatomy to direct his hand, the little knife 
was a most deadly weapon. The first stroke laid 
bare the jugular vein; another, directed towards 
the chest, was stopped by folds of Carter's shirt; 
another penetrated his side, producing a sickening 
sensation, which compelled him to lie down, pro- 
ducing death in a few minutes. Carter's friends 
picked out a tree upon which to hang the Doctor; 
but when the circumstances that Unkles was physi- 
cally insignificant, and that the parties pressing him 
were intent on serious mischief, became known, few 
were found willing to assist in his execution, and 
he was not molested. 

FATAL EXPLOSION. 

In the early part of LJ353, H. C. Farnum and 
James McLeod built a steam saw-mill at Oleta, to 
utilize the fine timber which covered all the hills 
around. Some two or three months afterward, in 
the early part of April, the boiler collapsed a flue. 
The force of the steam, reacting against the bed in 
which the boiler was placed, threw it out of posi- 
tion, propelling it through the side of a building, 



224 



BISTORT? OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



also through the office or oounting-room. McLeod 
Btanding In the line of the movement, was caught on 
the end of the boiler, and forced along until the 
boiler stopped. Both lege and one arm were broken, 
and be was in addition thereto much burned, lacer- 
ated, and internally injured, yel when the clouds of 
Bteam cleared away, be was seen dragging himself 
l>v hi-> remaining arm to the water. lie survived 
I. ut a day or two, Buffering intensely, and begging 

his. friends to kill him. Farnura and another party 
were sitting on the opposite Bides of a table in the 
counting-room, when the boiler, with McLeod on the 
end, came crashing through the building, passing 
between the two. Parnum had one arm broken, and 
was otherwise bruised and burned; the man sitting- 
opposite," inhaled the hot steam, which resulted 
fatally in a year or two. McLeod was a native of 
Canada West, and was universally esteemed. 

SERIOUS CASE OF ERYSIPELAS. 

Captain Stowers and his friend Slater, who lived 
in one of the shanties called b}^ courtesy " hotels," 
came out one day, bandaged and bundled, terribly 
sick. Swellings all over them, angry swellings and 
indolent ulcers that would not heal, Avere symptoms of 
very bad cases of erysipelas! Tbey were going to die; 
nothing would save them. Squire Yates was con- 
sulted as to settling their affairs. His good sense, 
or, perhaps, experience, solved the difficulty. "You 
dirt}- dogs," said he, after an examination, "you 
ought to be hung! You are rotten with lice, gray- 
backs" — which was the case. The lice were three 
deep, all gnaw T ing away at the portly Captain, suck- 
ing the delicious juices out of his body. His feelings 
experienced a sudden revulsion, not exactly from 
mourning to joy, but wrath rather. Some few " cuss 
words," like scattering drops of rain before a 
shower, fell from his lips, and then the storm burst. 
Better ring down the curtain. 

LYNCH LAW VETOED. 

In 1854, a Mexican and a Frenchman, journeyino- 
together towards Oleta, drank each other's health so 
frequently as to produce confused perccptious of 
passing events. On arriving at Oleta, the French- 
man missed his watch, and accused the Mexican of 
stealing it. The dispute coming to the knowledge of 
some of the " home rulers," they proposed to have a 
'49 trial. As they were ravenous for blood, they 
soon found the Mexican guilty, condemning him to 
be hung immediately, and set about executing the 
sentence. Henry Kutchenthall, R. M. Bri^s Ed 
and Jonathan Palmer, expostulated with the crowd- 
told them they were not '49ers; that '49ers never 
acted in such an infamous manner, and much more 
of the same offect: to no purpose, however, until led 
by Kutchenthall, they rushed in with drawn revol- 
vers, and liberated the Mexican. 

Three or four courageous men, backed by revol- 
vers and a sense of right, were often able to subdue 
a cowardly mob of scores. 



THE FAMOUS SAFE ROBBERY. 

Wells, Fargo and Company had their agency at 
the United States Hotel, kept then by the Kendall 
brothers. One morning the safe was found robbed 
of the contents, some ten thousand dollars. A liberal 
reward was offered for the recovery of the money 
and the apprehension of the thief. Many persons 
were anxious to get the reward, and set about the 
matter with more zeal than discretion. Charles 
Ackerly, a dissipated man, stated that being out late 
the night before and looking through the window of 
the office, he saw one of the Kendalls tampering with 
the sale. This rather unreasonable story was not 
credited, especially as he refused to testify at all in 
court, though kept in jail some time for contempt. 
Three strangers, who happened to come into the town 
about the time of the occurrence, were suspected, 
arrested, and brought before the Magistrate for 
examination. While this was in progress three 
masked men forcibly took Stupperfield, one of the 
strangers, out of the custody of the officers, con- 
ducted him to the outskirts of the town, and com- 
menced taking testimony in a manner not laid down 
in modern works on evidence, but one in vogue a 
few centuries since, and occasionally resorted to in 
California at an early day. They told him that his 
partners, meaning the other two strangers, had con- 
fessed the crime and had been hung, and that they 
were going to. serve him the same way unless he told 
them where he had hidden the money. He asserted 
his innocence of the charge; said he was a respecta- 
ble man ; had never committed any crime unless it 
was gambling a little, and expressed the fear that if 
he was hung it would kill his mother and sister. He 
asked some one to take the address of his mother 
and sister, and write to them his last words, that he 
died innocent of any crime. Some one volunteering 
to gratify him was thrust rudely aside with the un- 
feeling remark that " The man had better be praying, 
for his time is mighty short." The noose was fixed 
around his neck and he was drawn up and held sus- 
pended until he ceased struggling, when he was let 
down until he recovered. Denying any knowledge 
of the transaction, he was again " strung up," and 
again let down. Though unable to speak, he was 
drawn up a third time by the baffled reward-hunters, 
who were getting enraged at the man who would 
not "own up." At this stage of the affair Dr. Phelps, 
who came up, interfered to save the man any further 
torture, or rather to save his life, for he had now be- 
come insensible. He reached over the heads of the 
executioners, and with a Bowie knife cut the rope 
and the man fell to the ground. Deputy Sheriff Gist 
coming up about the same time, the court dispersed. 
The man was with difficulty resuscitated, his limbs 
being paralyzed for some time in consequence of 
injury to his spinal chord from the repeated hang- 
ings. It turned out that Stupperfield, as well as the 
other two strangers arrested, were in Forest Home 







K*&- 



.^: : ~r.. 



5T^ j SaiMsafcr !* & 



RES i DEN CECF RW PALMER 
J AC ft S ON , AMADOR C<> CAL 







RESIDENCE" M RS ROSA FROELlCH. 

JACK SON, AMADOR C? CAL 



NORTH-WESTERN PART OF THE COUNTY. 



225 



the night of the robbery. Public opinion has fixed 
the robbery on one of the parties engaged in this 
hanging. As the men were masked, it is unsafe to 
attempt to name them, though many persons have 
no doubt about their identity. It is better that pos- 
terity should remain ignorant of the names of the 
parties, than have the doubtful honor fixed on the 
wrong person. 

There are many conflicting statements about the 
matter, some saying that Stupperfield was taken 
away from the presence of the Magistrate, others 
that the maskers took him from a deputy, after the 
preliminary examination, before a decision was ren- 
dered, the latter hypothesis having the weight of 
evidence. 

The affair did not terminate with one prosecution. 
Lee Warden, the Constable, acting on the testimony 
of Ackerly, watched the house closely, and from 
some movements therein, concluded that the money 
was concealed not far away, a suspicion that proved 
correct, as it was found in an old oven not far from 
the house. The storm of persecution was now 
turned on him. He was arrested and thrown into 
jail, and as Job says, " escaped by the skin of his 
teeth," though public opinion has exonerated him 
of any connection with the robbery. 

FIRST SCHOOL. 

Dennis Townsend, afterwards county Superin- 
tendent of Schools for many years, taught the first 
school, Mrs. Bain sending one child, Rolands two, 
Gilpin three, Lagrave one, and Burt one. Lizzie 
Scott, now Mrs. Button, at lone, was also a pupil. 
Pew men were more devoted to their profession 
than Dennis Townsend. Coming to California when 
gold-hunting was the sole object with most men, 
his educational feelings were aroused to action by 
the sight of the children growing up untaught. 
Leaving the making of a fortune out of the question, 
he adopted the profession of a teacher, at a time 
that it meant inevitable poverty and sacrifice, which 
profession he followed during his life, or, until the 
arduous duties ruined his health and mind. If we 
measure men's wealth by the accumulation of gold, 
he died poor; if by the love of thousands of human 
beings, who have modeled their lives after his 
instruction, and hold his memory in veneration, he 
died one of the wealthiest men in the country. He 
was the inventor of the folding globe, by which the 
study of geography has been greatly simplified. 

CHURCHES. 

The first church was built in the Winter of 1852-53 

it being a small room, perhaps twelve by twenty, 

fitted up with desks and seats. Elder Blain, of the 

Methodist Episcopal church, held service occasionally 

with a few miners, and the wives of Briggs, Lagrave, 

and occasionally the Scott girls from Amador, sisters 

to the first-named women. A new church was 

erected in 1855, which was elegant and commodious. 

The town continued to grow until about 1863. 
29 



At one time, four stage-lines concentrated here, tak- 
ing passengers to Indian Diggings, and other mining 
towns, also for the cities. The hill diggings, though 
not rich, furnished remunerative employment to a 
great many men. Soon after the discovery of the 
Nevada mines, the population began to decline in 
common with the other placer mining tows of Ama- 
dor county. As the placers were worked out, the 
Chinese, who are willing to work for the smallest 
pittance, began to occupy the country. They now 
own nearly all the older part of the town. The 
buildings, water-worn and sunburned, would burn 
up in a moment if a fire were once kindled, and the 
old landmarks would be gone. The Chinese por- 
tion of the town shows gradual and certain decay. 
Though manifested in different ways, prosperity 
and adversity make their own record. Pomposity, 
obesity, contentment, and fine raiment, indicate 
easy circumstances; modesty, leanness, irritability, 
and shabbiness, belong to adversity. The latter 
conditions prevail in the Chinese quarters in Oleta 
to an alarming degree. 

MINING PROSPECTS. 

There is more placer mining around Oleta than in 
any other of the mining camps. The gulches were 
soon worked out, but the low-grade gravel hills 
remained unworked until smaller wages were satis- 
factory, or until improved methods of mining were 
adopted. The reduced price of water also has had 
much to do with the working of low-grade gravel 
mines. Loafer hill, as well as other hills in the 
vicinity, has many years of drifting. The ridge 
between Slate creek and Sucker creek is also paying 
ground. At the Brown claim, on Sucker hill, may be 
seen the most advanced methods of gravel mining. 
There is a large area of cemented gravel of low 
grade. The ordinary process of sluice-washing failed 
to make it remunerative. A stamp mill was tried, but 
the cost of crushing absorbed all the returns, leaving 
no margin for dividends. The crushing process, how- 
ever, was supposed to get the most of the gold 
that was in the gravel; so a point was gained for 
further experiments. The Duham " Gold and Water 
Saving Machine " seems to have solved the problem 
for this kind of mining. 

Fancy an old-fashioned churn about twelve or four- 
teen feet long, with staves of bar-iron half an inch 
thick and three inches wide, riveted to stout hoops 
instead of being banded or held together, the 
spaces between the staves being, say, one-twelfth 
of an inch. This is hung nearly horizontal on 
pivots, like a flour bolting machine, and partly 
immersed in a bath of water. The gravel is poured 
into one end of the churn, the rotary motion, which 
may be obtained by the same water which is 
used for the bath, or by steam-power, tumbles the 
gravel from one side to the other, all the time pass- 
ing it through the water until it is washed com- 
paratively clean, rolling out at the lower end, 
out of the way. The gold is caught on amalgamat- 



226 



bistort? of \m udob countt California. 



tag plates under the cylinder. The arrangemenl of 
these are Buoh as to be with diffloulty understood 
wit limit drawings. 

The results are as follows: — 
t losl of miningoul the gravel per ion .50c. 

■■ ■■ crushing in cement null 50c. 

81 00 

Total yield -- --? 1 °° 

Profit, nothing. 

Cost of mining being the same... •» ,,< '- 

" " reducing by Duham's process 10c. 

60c. 

Total yield by same 90c. 

Margin for profit 30c. 

90c. 90c. 

The capacity of the machine is ten tons per hour. 

The machine weighs about three tons, and may be 

taken in pieces of less than fifty pounds each. 

About two inches of water will run it. 

SEAWELL ADDITION. 

The tract between Dry creek and the Cosumnes, 
originally belonging to the El Dorado Company, was 
set oft' to Amador by Act of the Legislature in the 
Winter of 1856-57, through the instrumentality of 
Seawell, member from the Amador side. Indian creek, 
emptying into the Cosumnes at the forks, heads not 
far from 01 eta. Pigeon creek is a short stream 
between Indian creek and the Cosumnes. These 
streams were never rich in gold, though mined even 
to the present time. This country was a part of the 
ancient river system, and much of it was buried up 
in lava or lava wash. The glaciers swejDt out wide 
valleys, which are now the sites of fine farms. The 
volcanic debris forms a fine, warm soil, suitable for 
the vine and stone fruits. TJlinger's ranch has per- 
haps twenty thousand vines of different varieties 
flourishing finely. The wine is said to be of fine 
quality. Other farms in the vicinity are also prom- 
ising. The farming interests in this portion of the 
county will, no doubt, soon be the predominating 
element in the prosperity of the people. The soil is 
deep, generally free from boulders, and, having a 
granitic base, strong and enduring. The shallow 
mines have in many instances materially assisted the 
owners to tide over the unproductive time of " open- 
ing up a farm." Fruits and grain flourish without 
irrigation, though it is generally believed that apples 
and pears, and more especially small berries, would 
be much improved by it. At present the want of a 
market prevents the development of the cultivation 
of fruits. When canneries and dryers are estab- 
lished the resources of this portion of the county 
will be appreciated and developed. 

COSUMNES RIVER. 

This, by Act of the Legislature, 1856-57, con- 
stitutes the northern boundary of the county. The 
south fork was probably the poorest in gold of all 
the rivers in the mines; though around Fairplay, 



arville, and Indian Diggings, a range correspond- 
ing with Volcano and Murphy's, there were some 
vctv rich placers. Near the lower end of the flat, 
above the falls, were some deposits of fine gold) 
where the miners made from two to six ounces a day. 
This flat, like many places both north and south of 
the river, is a glacial erosion, one peculiarity of 
which is to pile up irregularly rounded gravel, 
clay and other <lcl*ris, peculiar to such agencies, 
against the dam or terminal wall, called by geolo- 
gists a moraine. If the track of the glacier is over 
auriferous slates or through gravel containing gold, 
rich deposits will be found at the lower end of a valley, 
or, as the miners say, at the wrong end, reversing 
the usual methods of deposit. Two or three rich 
riffles of small extent were discovered and worked 
in 1851, and subsequently in 1852. The following 
rather amusing account of an attempt to introduce 
improved mining will not only explain itself, but 
give an idea of the mistaken notions prevailing 
among miners with regard to the nature of gold 
deposits. The article was originally published in the 
Oakland Times: — 

The south fork of the Cosumnes heads among some 
very good placer mines, or rather what were good 
mines, for the once busy places are indicated by the 
scarred hills, and the chimneys of the long since 
deserted cabins. The main channel was rather poor, 
though some of the riffles or bars were rich in the 
scale gold, which was characteristic of this river, 
some small deposits paying as much as one hundred 
dollars per day to the man, which was enough to 
justify, in the then uncertain knowledge of the nature 
of river deposits, a belief in the unbounded richness of 
the inaccessible deep holes with which the river 
abounded. Early in 1852 some sailors, who had been 
on a slaver on the coast of Africa, obtained possession 
of a long, deep hole, just below one of these rich bars, 
which had paid for a few days astonishingly, every 
bucketful of dirt having a dollar in it. The hole was 
supposed to contain at least a bushel of gold, which 
opinion was strengthened by finding several dollars' 
worth of dust on the naked granite rock which 
crossed the channel, forming the dam which retained 
the water. This appeared to have been swashed, 
out of the hole by the freshet which occurred in 
March of that year. The sailors, knowing little or 
nothing of mining, had taken in as partners two 
experienced miners to engineer the working of the 
claim. A race, or canal, was cut around the hole, 
a dam thrown across the river, and about the first of 
July the water was all turned into the canal, the 
seepage through the dam being but trifling. Still 
there was five or six feet of water over the supposed 
treasure; how to get rid of it was the question. In 
the latter days of mining a steam engine and pump 
would have made short work of it, but in those days 
such a thing was not thought of, and the proposal 
to blast down the channel was rejected on account 
of the expense. At this stage of the affair one of 
the men who had been taken in as engineer pro- 
posed to construct a syphon to drain off the water, 
and made a model to show 7 its workings, bringing 
forward Comstock's Philosophy as authority. The 
sailors had no faith in " book larnin," and came very 
near rejecting the proposal, but finally gave a reluc- 
tant consent, and the construction of a syphon out 



NORTH-WESTERN PART OF THE COUNTY. 



227 



of irfch pine lumber, with no tools but a jack- 
plane, saw, and auger, was commenced. The lum- 
ber, all the way from Maine, cost twenty-eight cents 
a foot, and was carried over the mountains from Ye- 
omet, the nearest town . The syphon was made eight 
inches square in the clear, the edges of the lumber 
being put together with white lead. The ends of 
the several sections were joined by wrapping them 
with several folds of tarred canvas. To prevent 
leakage through the small worm-holes and poi*es of 
the wood, several coats of hot tar were applied to 
the outside. When finished the "simon," as it was 
universally called, was near a hundred feet long, look- 
ing much like ." the great sea serpent we have read 
o£" The project had excited much derisive comment 
among the several hundred miners in the vicinity, 
and when the day came for putting it in, all work 
was suspended, a great crowd gathering to see it work, 
or rather fail to work, for not one had an encourag- 
ing word for the projector; even the sailors had lost 
what little confidence in it they had at first, and 
were threatening personal violence to the originator. 
Those who have ever undertaken anything contrary 
to the universal opinion have some idea of the sore- 
ness a hundred wagging tongues will produce. Prom 
this point it may be as well to let the narrator use 
his own words: "I now floated one end of the tube 
out into deep water and sunk it to the bottom, put- 
ting a large rock on it to hold it down ; the other 
end was bent over the rock so as to obtain a fall of 
perhaps eight feet. I had gates at the ends and 
a valve opening outward at the highest part of the 
bend to aid in filling it with water. Everything 
being arranged 1 stationed a man at each end to tend 
the gates, taking charge of the valve at the top my- 
self. When the syphon was full I let it stand a 
moment to see that all was tight, and then closed 
the valve, wedging it down tight, and gave directions 
for the gates to be withdrawn. The syphon run a 
few barrels of water, gave a kind of snort, and was 
apparently dead! The crowd gave a derisive shout, 
using such expressions as " Yerl do ter travel, won't 
yer? Gonter take out a patent? Reckon yerl have 
ter study yer book a while longer, my friend. Yer've 
been ter college, have yer?" 

Though these expressions were made more in fun 
than anger, I was exceedingly mortified. Science 
had gone back on me. Comstock was a cheat ! To- 
add to my discomfort, my partner, who had con- 
tended for my knowledge of such matters and who, 
when the growling had assumed ominous proportions, 
had taken his little pile of three hundred dollars and 
told the sailors they had abused his partner long 
enough, and offered to bet his whole pile on the 
" simon " and thereby silenced their clamors, for a 
while at least, gave me a reproachful look I shall 
always remember, and went off to the cabin. The 
crowd of spectators, after venting their opinions, went 
to a saloon near by to finish the day at cards and 
whisky. After the first shock of disappointment was 
over I commenced a critical examination to see where 
the failure was. I half expected that some one had 
thrust a bowie-knife through the flexible joints, or 
that some crack had admitted the air, but all seemed 
as perfect as when I laid it down. At the lower end 
I made a discovery. When the water started through 
the syphon it raised the light pine box out of its bed 
so as to let the air in. I now dug away so as to let 
it down a little deeper and put a heavy rock on it 
to hold it to its place, and put in the gates without 
assistance, not wishing to have any spectators at the 
next trial. A second time I filled it and carefully 



closed the valve. I then waded out into the deep 
water and pulled out the upper gate and floundered 
back as soon as possible to take out the lower one, 
being apprehensive of failure on account of the dif- 
ference in time. The reader will bear in mind that 
the water in the pond was up to the top and running 
over the rock, consequently the syphon would dis- 
charge the water as at a pressure of eight feet, or the 
difference between the water-level and the lower leg 
of the syphon. When I pulled out the gate the 
water poured through the syphon like a young flood. 
In two minutes the claim below was flooded, sluice- 
boxes, pumps, and everything made of wood being 
afloat, which I was not sorry for, as the owners had 
laughed the loudest at my failure. A whirl-pool 
over the mouth of the upper end of the syphon 
showed the force with which the water was being 
drawn through. I gave a shout or screech of delight 
which brought every one within hearing to the spot. 
A man came to the door of the saloon and shouted, 
"I'll be dogoned if the simon ain't jest a bilin." The 
cards were thrown down, and a rush made for the 
syphon. Since then I have " struck it rich " and 
made my " pile." 1 have mingled in politics and 
won the race, and have received a blissful answer 
from the woman 1 loved; but I doubt if anything 
brought the happiness of that moment. Science 
was victorious. 

Yarious were the speculations about the " simon." 
One suggested that the moving power was suction. 

" Suction be d d," said the other, with a look 

of pitiful contempt, "Where's yer suck?" It may 
be explained that the plunger of a pump is called a 
suck by many Far West people. The theory most 
in vogue was : " Yer see, this end er the simon's a 
heap the lowest, and the water is gonter run out 
heah any how; nothin' can't git inter it 'cept at the 
eends, and the water has ter come; somethin' has ter 
come, you bet." 

In a few days the wonder ceased. I was known 
as the " simon man," which afterwards was shortened 
to Simon. There was no fortune in the hole, the 
bottom being as smooth as your hand. 

A visit to the river after an absence of nearly 
thirty years shows little change. No deep bank 
diggings, such as characterize the other rivers, are 
seen; no canals, blasted through the rocky sides, 
show where the river was turned. The slickens from 
the mines around the head of the river, have given 
a smoothness to the channel that it did not formerly 
have. The canon, as it was termed, where a pile of 
boulders ten to a hundred feet in diameter, which 
filled the whole river-bed in 1851 so that no water 
was seen or even heard, except during floods, is now 
so filled with tailings that the water runs over the 
tops of the rocks. A few timber slides and wood 
roads show the occasional presence of lumbermen, 
but otherwise the deer might wander undisturbed. 

FARMS. 

Above the falls are several good farms. This 
ground was taken up for farming purposes in 1851, 
by John M. Jamison and son. They were from 
St. Louis, where the former had held many posi- 
tions of trust and honor. They afterwards removed 
to Pigeon creek, where they erected a saw-mill, put 
up good buildings, and made a home for the family, 
which soon joined them. The original location was 






BISTORT? OF AMAhoi: COUNTY, < ! \ I.IK< >I1NIA. 



good land, bn1 rather frosty, owing to the conforms 
tion of the outlel of (he valley, which was a glacial 
moraine. 

I.l Nl HING Ml Mlt. 

Jamison's rancb was the scene nl' an affair in L852 
thai occupied the attention ofthe peopleand author- 
ities of I'll Dorado for some time, involving the 

Jamisons, l">tli Father and son, in a vexatious ami 
OOStly lawsuit. 

John Crouch, then living on a place now occupied 
by -Mrs. Williams, found the hide of one of his 
missing cattle in a Mexican camp, at the forks ofthe 
Oosumnes. With the help of some friends, he gath- 
ered up li\c or six of the Mexicans, and took them 
to Jamison's ranch tor a trial. Knowing the hast} 7 
manner of such trials, and the summary justice 
meted out, Beebee and other respectable persons at 
the Forks (Ycomet) sent an express to Coloma for 
the Sheriff Buchanan, to be present at the meeting 
the next day. While the gathering was in progress, 
the Sheriff and deputies, two or three in number, 
with some friends and acquaintances of the Mexi- 
cans, came also. Some high words ensued, the 
Sheriff urging the citizens to give up the Mexicans 
for trial, the citizens insisting upon trying them then 
and there, as the courts were unreliable. While the 
angry colloquy was going on, several Mexicans, with 
arms in their hands, were discovered hanging around 
on the outskirts of the place. Whether they came 
with peaceful intent and were afraid to come in, is 
not known. Several persons went with guns and 
pistols and drove them awa} 7 . Among this number 
was the elder Jamison. There is no mistake about 
his being of the party, and it is particularly noticed 
here, as being important in connection with the 
charge subsequently made against him of resisting 
the officers. Several shots were fired at the Mexi- 
cans, and perhaps some were returned. They retired 
however without much delay. The shots on the outside 
of the camp seemed to inflame the crowd, many of 
whom drew their revolvers and told the Sheriff to 
leave. One person struck his horse with the barrel 
of a rifle. Perhaps a dozen pistols and guns were 
exhibited with the intention of overawing him. The 
Sheriff was obliged to go, as it would have been 
madness to have drawn a weapon in his own defense 
in the presence of so many weapons ready to be 
used. He turned his horse, and rode slowly away, 
evidently angry, but holding himself in good order, 
followed by the friends of the Mexicans. Perhaps 
the presence of the hide might have been explained 
if the folks at the Forks had been beard. Beebee, 
of the firm of Beebee & Simpson, claims that the 
Mexicans were not guilty of any crime; that the 
parties punished were, hard-working, honest men. 
After the Sheriff and his party had retired, the citi- 
zens proceeded to try the accused. A jury of twelve 
was called out. The evidence left no doubt of the 
stealing of the cattle by some one or more in the 
camp to which the Mexicans belonged. The accused . 



(me of whom could speak English, told the jury'that 
there were some had men in the settlement to which 
he belonged; that neither he nor his friends ought to 
he held responsible for their deeds, for they were 
desperadoes, as ready to rob their own countrymen 
as the Americans. The statement looked reasona- 
ble, but the accused were found guilty by the jury, 
mostly on the ground of not having prevented the 
stealing b} T other parties, and were sentenced to some 
thirty lashes each, on the general principle that a 
greaser was always guilty. One after another was 
taken out to a tree and whipped. One of them, a 
fine-looking man — the one spoken of before — bowed 
to the people with a smile, saying in good English : — 

u Gentlemen, 1 am as innocent of this stealing as 
any of you," and held his hands up to be tied to the 
tree. 

The executioner, whose name will be omitted, 

said: " G- d you, I'll take that smile off your 

face." 

John McCauley, one of the participators in the 
affair, protested against his receiving any severer 
punishment than the others. It is said that the 
last-mentioned person was Joaquin Murietta. There 
are so many conflicting reports concerning him that 
it is difficult to believe anything. The report that 
he was unjustly whipped somewhere, is probably 
true. Persons acquainted with him say that it was 
in El Dorado county; others say that it was in 
Sonora. Whether it was Joaquin or somebody else, 
is not material. The sting of the lash may be borne 
with indifference, but the disgrace, the insults, con- 
nected with it, who will forgive? One enemy at 
least was made who probably wiped out the dis- 
grace, according to his code, in blood. The fact 
that Joaquin commenced his murderous career in 
Fiddletown; that the participants in the "Jamison 
affair," as it was called, were apparently hunted, 
gives an appearance of probability to the theory. 

The Sheriff left with no pleasant feelings. The 
firmly set jaw and steady eye, indicated another 
chapter in the play. In a day or two after, he 
returned with a posse comitatus of three or four hun- 
dred men, to arrest the riotei'S. 

"Then there was hurrying to and fro, 
And cheeks all pale which but an hour ago," 

Well — the rioters ran now. 



Eunners were sent up and down the river, also to 
Fiddletown, warning them to flee from the wrath 
to come. Some visited with the Indians for a while; 
others found a hunting trip on the upper waters of 
the rivers, to be the best thing at hand. Jamison 
and his son were both arrested, and taken to Ooloma. 
The jiosse comitatus helped themselves freely to hay, 
grain, and provisions, wasting what they did not 
consume, and doing damage to the amount of several 
hundred dollars. At the preliminary examination 
before a magistrate, the Sheriff found it difficult to 
fix any participation in resisting him, on either 
lamison or the son, for the reason, as before stated, 



NORTH-WESTERN PART OF THE COUNTY. 



229 



that they were of the party that were out at the 
time to drive away the Mexicans who were hanging 
around the place. The principle of law, that he who 
is present when an unlawful act is committed, without 
using his influence to prevent it, becomes "particeps 
criminis," was cited with the proof of influence, 
which, if it had been used, might have averted the 
resistance; Mr. Jamison's house, or place, had been 
used on account of the convenience of meeting there, 
not because he took an active part in the matter. 
The offense, if any had been committed, was purely 
technical, and by a general understanding the Jami- 
sons plead guilty, paid a nominal fine, and were dis- 
missed; but the active lynchers did not rest quite 
easy, until after several months had elapsed. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

NORTH-WESTERN PART OF THE COUNTY. 

Drytown — Details of Settlement — First Justice of the Peace — 
Arrival of Families — Scurvy — Great Fire — Farming — Dry 
Creek — Rattlesnake Gulch — Mile Gulch — Murderers' 
Gulch — Forest Home — Arkansas Creek — Yankee Hill — Big 
Nugget — Willow Springs — Central House — Plymouth — 
Puckerville — Mineral Springs — Fires — Enterprise — Yeomet. 

Drytown is on Dry creek, in the northern part of 
the county, about twelve miles from Jackson. Dry 
creek, from which the town takes its name, runs 
through the place. It is the oldest town of any size 
in the county. As early as May in 1848, some fifty 
or more persons were working here, the most of 
whom were Mexicans from Monterey and vicinity. 
Isaac E. Eastman, now mining in the vicinity of 
Yolcano, was here a few days at that time. Two 
ounces a day was the ordinary day's work, though 
occasionally, when a rich crevice was found, the 
ounces would become pounds. During the Summer, 
the number was still greater. In the following- 
Spring, more white men came, among whom were 
G. L. Thomas, who had resided in Thomas 0. 
Larkin's family at Monterey, also some of Steven- 
son's regiment, names unknown, though one of them 
went by the name of Leather-stocking. All accounts 
agree in the statement that the ravines and gulches 
were very rich, the gold being on the bed-rock near 
the surface. A hundred dollars to the pan was not 
an unusual occurrence. The tussocks, or bunches of 
grass along the ravines, would often have five or six 
dollars adhering to the roots. Mr. Thomas, who 
still lives in Drytown, thinks that in the Spring and 
Summer of '49, men averaged one hundred dollars 
per day. The town was very quiet, the Indians, 
Mexicans, and white population generally getting 
along without much trouble. The four or five white 
men began to think they were not having a fair show, 
considering they were the owners of the country, and 
posted up a notice ordering all foreigners to leave 
within a certain time, which, however, was not 
noticed. An Englishman by the name of Pilkinton, 
who had formerly lived in Mexico, and understood 
the Spanish language, kept a store in a brush shanty 



and got most of the Mexican trade. A man by the 
name of Williams, who had a store on Chile hill, got 
the Indian trade, his stock being mostly shirts and 
other cotton goods of gay colors, with which the 
Indians loved to decorate themselves. At this time 
there were but three or four log-cabins. 

Pilkinton wag the first Justice of the Peace, or the 
first elected rather, but as the election was carried 
by the residents of the town, who were mostly 
gamblers, it did not give satisfaction to the miners, 
who called a meeting in the evening to reconsider the 
matter. There was no town hall, but a big fire was 
built against a log, and the meeting was organized 
by the election of a man by the name of Beiterman 
as chairman — the chair being a portion of the log at 
a little distance from the fire. Mr. Beiterman was a 
portly, good-looking man, and had the only stove- 
pipe hat in the country, and had the further dis- 
tinction of having married a runaway wife of 
Brigham Young, hence was considered a suitable per- 
son for chairman. The fact that Pilkinton was an 
Englishman, and was chosen by the gamblers, was 
duly set forth, and the election was annulled. 

During the Summer, when the " around the Horn 
men" began to arrive, there was a large accession 
to the white population. All the passengers, num- 
bering thirty or forty, from the barks Strafford and 
Anna Welch, from New York, came in a body to the 
town, and a new impetus was given to affairs. An 
election for Justice of the Peace was called, and two 
candidates were set up. The old citizens nominated 
and supported a man by the name of Mulford, from 
Pennsylvania. The Straftbrds nominated a man by 
the name of Coffin, who was elected after a very 
spirited contest. He left, however, in the course of 
a week. A love for a political contest, more than 
the want of a magistrate, was the source of the 
interest manifested in the election. 

In the Autumn a great many families came to 
Drytown, among whom were the Hinkstons, Boone, 
' lineal descendants of Daniel Boone,' Weston, and 
Richmond families; a family also settled in Mile 
gulch. Miss Mollie Boone, now Mrs. Frank Hen- 
derson, living at Drytown, was born December 2d, 
1849, on the north side of the creek, then in El 
Dorado county, Dry creek being the county line. 
She was the first white child born in the present limits 
of the county. 

The first attempts to have anything like perma- 
nent residences, commenced about this time. So 
far, the people had camped under trees or brush 
shanties, or in tents. The boots and hat often 
served for a pillow. Coyotes prowled around the 
camps at night, gathering up all that was' eatable, 
or had the smell of human hands on it. One morn- 
ing, a miner missed one of his boots. He remem- 
bered that he put it under his head; why any one 
should steal one boot, he could not imagine. It was 
found some distance away, gnawed by a coyote, 
that had managed to pull it from under his head, 



280 



HISTORY OF amaim.i; COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



without disturbing bis Blumbore. In another in- 
Btanoe, a man. distrusting his companions, put his 
purse, containing several pounds of dust, under a 
Hat rock Bome ways from the camp. In the morn- 
ing i< was gone. Hewasloud in bis complaints of 
having been robbed 1>\ Borne one of the company, 
[nstead of getting up a row, they were cool enough 
to inquire into the circumstances, and went with 
the loser to the defaulting bank The depositor 
showed the line between two tiers, where the gold 
was buried under the rock, which appeared to have 
been moved. A closer examination showed marks 
Of a paw that had scratched around the stone. The 
purse, gnawed in holes and empty, was found not 
Car away, the dust being scattgred over considerable 
ground. It was mostly recovered, and good feel- 
ings in the family restored, though coyotes fared 
badly in the vicinity after that, all on account of 
"that Jinn- blamed crittwr that stole his puss." 

ROCKERS. 

The Beitermans made rockers out of "split stuff," 
and sold them for seventy-five dollars each. A year 
afterwards they were sold for twenty-five dollars. 
The Americans used rockers, packing the dirt in 
sacks to water, sometimes half a mile away. The 
Mexicans diy-washed, with their batayas, with much 
the same movement that is used in cleaning sand 
out of gold-dust. When less than an ounce a day 
was made, new diggings were sought. 

CABINS. 

When the rains commenced there were few or no 
cabins; those who had been prudent enough to build 
them gave a place on the ground for a sjyread to those 
who were out of doors. It was found that the western 
man, either from having crossed the plains or from 
being accustomed to a rough life, was readiest to 
adapt himself to circumstances. He soon "knocked 
up" a log cabin, while the eastern man cursed the 
country and lamented his hard fate. The first rains 
were of short duration and before the heavy rains 
set in all were sheltered. Shakes were worth six- 
teen dollars per hundred, and a man with a cross-cut 
saw and froe could make two ounces a day. 

SCURVY. 

Nearly everybody was afflicted with what was 
called scurvy, which seemed to be a disease similar 
to what afflicted the people the following year, though 
accompanied with other symptoms. The limbs and 
body would swell, the tongue crack and bleed, and 
the gums get so sore and ulcerated that the teeth 
would become loose, sometimes falling out. It was 
usually accompanied with diarrhea and flux, which 
became to a great extent epidemic. It is supposed 
to have been caused by the hardships of the long 
journey, both by sea and land, and the scarcity of 
vegetable food. About thirty persons, one-fifth of 
the white population, died during the Winter, of this 
disease. Doctors charged eight dollars for a visit in 
town, and sixteen to fifty dollars per visit to the 



country. Dan Worlcy, who suffered from this disease 
lor some time, employed a physician, who salivated 
and otherwise demoralized him, without doing him 
any good, for which he charged one thousand one 
hundred dollars. Dan thinks he could have got his 
teeth knocked out for a much less sum than that if 
he had set about it. 

Potatoes were worth two dollars a pound; a bottle 
of sauerkraut, four dollars; vinegar, when it could be 
had, was dealt out as medicine at twenty-five cents a 
spoonful. The scarcity of good water might have 
had something to do with the violence of disease, 
as there was but one place (near the present slaughter 
house) where drinking water could be obtained. 
Men would go there before daylight and await their 
turn for a chance at the small seepage which came out 
there. Five years afterwards no such awaiting 
would have occurred, for the sinking of a shaft deep 
enough to reach the abundance of cool water every- 
where found in that vicinity, would not have caused 
ten minutes conference. 

Until 1853, Drytown was a collection of log cabins 
and shake shanties, without much attempt at arch- 
itectural display or even comfort, but the people 
caught the prevailing spirit of improvement, and 
commenced improving. A hall for general purposes 
was built. It was also used as a church and school- 
house. In 1854 several brick buildings, supposed to 
be fire-proof, were erected. In 1856-57 the town 
was at its best as far as numbers were concerned, 
though it was even then considered a "worked-out" 
place, the shallow gulches having been easily ex- 
hausted and no hill diggings taking their places. 

GREAT FIRE. 

In the Autumn of 1857 a fire broke out near the 
creek, and, aided by the wind, situation of the town, 
and combustible nature of the buildings, in an hour 
it laid the whole place in ashes. Three buildings, Will- 
iams' and Louis & Kichtmyer's, and the present 
store of William O. Clark, were the only ones 
saved. Those who have never seen a California town 
burn, have no idea of the progress of the flames after 
a start is made. The shakes and pine boards, ren- 
dered spongy by long exposure to the Winter rains 
without protection from paint, and then made 'dry as 
tinder by a six months' exposure to a heat of one 
hundred and forty degrees in the sun, flash like shav- 
ings, the flame leaping from house to house as on the 
dry prairie grass, rendering useless any attempts to 
stay its progress or save property. 

Drytown never recovered from this misfortune. 
The Mexicans and Chilenos, who had constituted the 
larger part of the population in times past, left, no 
white people taking their places. 

Some of the brick buildings and most of the 
dwellings of the white residents were rebuilt, but 
some of the brick stores were soon after without 
tenants, and served to shelter the weary pigs and 
goats from the noon-day sun. When the Gover, Sea- 
ton, Pennsylvania, and other mines along the lode 



NORTH-WESTERN PART OF THE COUNTY. 



231 



were developed, the town showed some signs of 
revival, but New Chicago soon appropriated that 
source of prosperity, and the old routine was resumed. 
The travel between the different mining towns still 
goes through Drytown, and the stages from lone and 
Latrobe connect with stages for the upper towns 
twice a day, bringing some trade to the stores. 

There is some farming in the vicinity, the soil 
being well adapted to cereals and fruits. Wine of a 
fine quality is manufactured in considerable quanti- 
ties, the capacity of the soil for grapes being unsur- 
passed. William 0. Clark, the famous temperance 
orator, recuperates his exhausted energies by plough- 
ing the hill sides and haiwesting the tall oats, as a 
recreation. Robert Cosner, a successful politician, 
several times elected to the office of Sheriff, and now 
a prominent man in San Francisco, commenced his 
career here as a clerk for J. C. Williams. Doc- 
tor Fox, a stock broker in the city, also resided here 
in early days, as did W. F. Curtis, a lawyer, after- 
wards a noted man in the Union army. D. W. Sea- 
ton, successful as a lawyer, politician, and miner, was 
also resident here from his first coming to California 
to the day of his death (soon after his election to 
the State Senate) by the explosion of the steamer 
Yo Semite. He gave his name to the Seaton mine.. 

DRY CREEK. 

From the crossing of the Mother Lode, down, 
this creek was probably the best in the county. It 
was the first to be extensively worked, having sev- 
eral hundred miners while there was yet but a house 
or two at Amador and Sutter Creek. The source of 
the gold which enriched all the gulches in the vicin- 
ity is a mystery. No rich quartz veins traverse the 
hills which are nearly a mile west of the Mother 
Lode, and no place on the Mother Lode in the county 
was as rich as at Drytown, excepting, perhaps, Mur- 
phy's and Hunt's gulches. If there were ever any 
ancient river-beds, they are gone, only a trace in two 
or three places being left; but as Drytown is two or 
three hundred feet lower than any mining town 
in the county, the ancient rivers may have been 
swept away. Some traces of one are found on the 
high hill south of the town, also on a hill near the 
quartz lode, also at Rattlesnake flat, east of the 
quartz lode. The clayey bed on which the gravel 
rested at the latter-named place indicates a bed of a 
glacier, and Drytown may have been the outlet for a 
vast floe of ice, the flats at the Central House and 
Plymouth forming a part of the same. The fact 
that the wall-rock of the ancient valley is broken 
down here lower than any point between the bound- 
aries of the county favors this theoiy. Some indica- 
tions of benches or shores of an ancient lake may be 
seen on the hill-sides south of Drytown. 

The creek was rich several miles below town. At 
Campbell's store, five miles below town, the creek 
was as good as at any other point, and at Irish Hill. 
the ancient outlet of the glacial stream, it was no 
unusual thing for men to make fortunes of ten to 



twenty thousand dollars. Whoever has time and 
inclination to study the connections between the 
ancient river beds of Fiddletown (Oleta) and the 
glacial marks at points farther west, will find a rich 
field for study and discovery. 

RATTLESNAKE GULCH 

Was one of the richest gulches around Drytown. 
Its several branches start from the crest of the Black 
hills, (the rich quartz deposit heretofore described,) 
and empty into Dry creek, not far above the town. 

murderer's gulch, 
An ominous name, was so called from its being 
the scene of several murders in 1849-50. It lies 
along the reef of Jurassic gravel, from which it prob- 
ably derives most of its gold. Blood gulch also was 
the scene of a murder in the same year. Some men 
seeing blood mingled with the water, went up the 
stream a few yards, and found a man who had been 
shot and robbed, hence the name. 

MILE GULCH 

Heads near Lower Rancheria, and runs north- 
westerly towards Dry creek. This was also the 
scene of a tragedy during the excitement of 1855. 
The gold was from a pliocene river, which enriched 
Rattlesnake flat, this being one of the very few 
places remaining of the great gravel deposits. A 
family (name forgotten) settled here in '49. Rattle- 
snake flat was mined in 1859 or '60, by a party 
who brought water to it by means of a ditch and 
flume, from Rancheria creek. 

FOREST HOME. 

This was the center of a mining district in the 
north-western part of the county, which was, per- 
haps, the poorest in gold of any portion that was 
extensively worked. The serpentine range here 
reached its largest development, some of the peaks 
forming landmarks for many miles around. This 
development, or rather extraordinary elevation of 
the meuimorphic seiies of rocks, perhaps had some 
influence in preventing streams or channels from 
being formed which could be enriched by the Mother 
Lode, as the country further south was. The Cos- 
umnes river along this tract was not rich, the pay- 
ing claims being farther down, in the vicinity of 
Michigan bar, in Sacramento and El Dorado counties. 

ARKANSAS CREEK, 

So called because no "Arkansaw traveler" ever 
came that way, has its source near Forest Home, 
runs westerly several miles, and empties into the 
Cosumnes, near the county line. At the head of 
this creek were some deep diggings, called the 
"Yankee claim" and Wind hill. These places seem 
to have been the remains of a pliocene river, perhaps 
of the same age as the hills around Stony creek, in 
the southern part of the county, Arkansas creek 
receiving its- wealth from these hills. 

YANKEE HILL 

Was worked in 1850 by Griswold, Emerson, Pur- 
tham, Alexander, and others. Griswold is now an 



■_':;: 



IIISTOKY OF AMA ; COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



eminent composer <>r music in Boston. The lower 
pari of the oreefc only paid moderately, three i" five 
dollars being the usual result of a day's work. Will- 
iam r>. Ludlow, afterwards member of the Legis- 
lature, now a resident of Oakland. ESdmond Tanner, 

Wallace Wallace, ami Charles Bennett, the latter 

since a resident of Sutter Creek, are remembered as 
mining there in 1850, and since, rotter, now of 
Plymouth, ami also Gideon Babb, kept Btores there. 

Some coarse gold was taken out occasionally. The 

liills were generally composed of sand and gravel, 
i lie gold being found in a kind of ferruginous, 
cemented gravel, on the bottom. 

BIG NUGGET. 

One day a Mexican, named Antone, struck a nug- 
get with his crow-bar. which refused to give way. 
He enlarged the drift, and approached it two or 
three inches farther back, and struck his bar, as he 
thought, behind it. To his astonishment, the nugget 
>till continued into the hill. A second enlargement 
produced a like result, and not until he enlarged 
and extended the drift a third time, did he get 
behind it. He began to be rather excited by this 
time, and when it came out, he thought he had 
about all the money he should ever want. He 
rushed to the nearest saloon, and treated all hands, 
depositing the chispa as security for payment. He 
continued to treat so many times, that the margin 
vanished, the nugget eventually falling into the 
hands of J. Elkins. The piece was seven and a half 
inches long, and worth three hundred dollars. The 
gold in this vicinity was mixed with silver, and was 
worth only thirteen dollars per ounce, forming a 
great contrast in appearance Avith the gold from 
Drytown, which was w T orth seventeen dollars and 
seventy-five cents per ounce. 

In 1860, the sluices were often robbed. Some 
person would cut small creases in the bottoms of 
the boxes, and with a sharp, conical scraper, would 
clean several sets of sluices in a night. The act 
becoming common, Edward Evans, one of the 
miners, kept watch, and when the robber went' at 
his work, gave him a load of shot. The culprit 
proved to be a Chinaman. The Chinese in the 
vicinity were compelled to bury him. Evans received 
no punishment. In 1850, John Ballou and Nehemiah 
Barnes, got into a difficulty about a right to a min- 
ing claim, which resulted in the fatal shooting of 
the former. Barnes soon after left the country. In 
an early day, a Frenchman named Baymond, min- 
ing on the river, shot a Chinaman with very little 
provocation. The miners gathered, and giving the 
Frenchman a trial, hung him. At that time there 
was no especial prejudice towards the Chinese race. 
The Arkansas House, not fur from the county line, 
was kept by a man by the name of Haynes, who 
died some twenty j-ears ago, of consumption. He 
was the first Justice of the Peace in that section of 
the county. 



WILLOW SPRINGS. 

This i^ the site of a glacial erosion, like Plymouth 
and other placos. It was settled by Richard- 

son and William Jennings, who put up a first-class 
hotel, the place being on the line of the travel from 
Drytown, Fiddletown and other places to Sacra- 
mento. Travelers a quarter of a century since 
recollect well the good fare of those days. The 
place was afterwards sold to Mathews. W. D. Castle, 
now of San Jose, owned the place for many years. 
The mining was never of much importance around 
this place. 

THE CENTRAL HOUSE, 

Two miles north of Drytown, is another place similar 
to Willow Springs in location and character. As 
before stated, the gold mining never attracted many 
persons to this vicinity. Soon after the breaking 
out of the copper excitement, several veins of copper 
were discovered, and for some years this " North- 
West Territory" bid fair to become a second El 
Dorado, or Copperopolis. This epoch of the history 
will receive more particular attention in the history 
of copper mining, which will form a chapter by 
itself. 

PLYMOUTH 

Is on the Mother Lode, near the northern boundary 
of the county, fifteen miles from the county seat. It 
has very little history separate from the history of 
its quartz veins. At the lower end of the flat, on 
which the town is built, there was formerly a small 
hamlet called Puckerville, or Pokerville. It might 
have had twenty or thirty miners in its best days, 
which were nearly a quarter of a century since. At 
the present time, a solitary house marks the site of 
the ancient town. Ruined chimneys, the usual relics 
of a " dug-out " town, are totally wanting, and at 
this day the history of the town is irrevocably lost. 
If the name was Pokerville, we may imagine the 
citizens playing poker, with beans for stakes, while 
waiting through the long Summer for water to come, 
or, through the Winter for the water to go down, so 
their claims could be worked, a practice quite com- 
mon in early days in many a mining camp which has 
since made a town. As for Puckerville, there is no 
accounting for that name. There were no persim- 
mons to contract the beef and potato gates; no old 
maids to put on Sunday rig, and draw the mouth 
together like a rose-bud to look sweet and tempting; 
in fact, there were no females at all, save occasion- 
ally a wandering mahala, with a basket on ber broad 
back, gathering acorns and bugs. The Indian belle 
never pressed her mouth to look sweet; that were 
impossible, but delighted rather in an immense 
spread, which showed a set of ivories like a quartz 
breaker. The wildest imagination fails to find a 
probable reason, and the question " Wher-efore Puck- 
erville ?" must be left to the wisdom of some of the 
numerous debating societies of the mountains. Per- 
haps the orator of the "sand-lot," when he has 




AK.DUDtfEY 



tompson * west 



NORTH-WESTERN PART OF THE COUNTY. 



233 



decided all the questions of theolog}', political and 
social economy, whether moral or financial, to the 
satisfaction of the people, will give this question the 
benefit of his profound erudition. 

Plymouth proper was settled upon in an early day 
by Green Aden and others in search of quartz, but 
the commencement of its growth as a town, dates 
to the working of the mines by the Hoopers, father 
and son. About 1873 the town took a sudden start, 
occasioned by the purchase of the mines by Hay- 
ward, D. O. Mills and company. In the same year 
the precinct cast one hundred and seventy-five votes; 
in 1877, two hundred and seventy-five; in ] 880, some- 
thing over three hundred, showing a steady growth 
which is likely to be permanent. 

The town is identified with the prosperity of the 
mines, though there is Considerable farming land in 
the vicinity, which partially supplies the demand for 
hay and barley. Shenandoah valley is one of the 
rural places in this vicinity. It has many fine farms 
and orchards, that of Oliver Balls being among the 
best. 

MINERAL SPRINGS. 

The White Sulphur Springs, about two miles north 
of Plymouth, possess relaxing qualities useful in 
cases of constipation and inflammatory diseases. No 
improvements have been made yet. The property 
is owned by Albert Stevens. There is also an exten- 
sive marble quarry in the vicinity, furnishing an 
abundance of rock for ornamental purposes, as well 
as lime for building. 

FIRES. 

The following letter from Plymouth to the Dispatch 
will explain itself: — 

About three o'clock on Monday, the tenth of June, 
1877, occurred the largest fire ever experienced in 
this town (Plymouth). The fire commenced in the 
rear of J. C. Williams' stable and spread over the 
upper part of the town in^an incredible short space 
of time, reducing twenty or more buildings with their 
contents to ashes. The following is a partial list of 
the losses: Easton's hotel, McMullen's boarding and 
lodging house, James Davis' store, John Davis' dwell- 
ing house, Baer & Coblentz's store, Odd Fellows' 
hall, P. Quin's saloon and dwelling house, dwellings 
of Williams, Thomas, and Richardson, Wentworth's 
blacksmith shop and dwelling, Jacob Smith's shoe- 
maker shop and dwelling, Potter's barn and out-houses, 
J. C. Williams' stable, five horses, lumber yard, 
wagons, hay, grain, etc., the residences of the Misses 
Snyder, and a number of other houses and buildings, 
about twenty-two in all. 

The fire was said to have been started by some 
children who were playing with matches in some 
straw in the rear of the stable. The total loss is 
estimated at fifty thousand dollars, only a small por- 
tion being covered by insurance. 

ENTERPRISE 

Is the name of a town that was started up about 
the time that Plymouth commenced growing, and 
had at one time a hundred or more men busily 
prospecting quartz, which was thought to be very 
good. Whether from too much water, as some 
30 



allege, or from other causes, capitalists failed to take 
hold of the work, and explorations ceased, the town 
with the fine name being relegated to obscurity. A 
house or two keeps guard over what was once a 
lively camp. 

YEOMET 

Is an Indian name signifying rocky falls, and was 
given to the forks of the Cosumnes river. Indian 
creek, north fork, middle fork, which received the 
south fork a mile or two above, all coming together 
here. Indian creek rises east of Oleta, runs west until 
it strikes the quartz range; thence along the course of 
the vein three miles to the Cosumnes. The north 
fork also runs for some miles parallel to the Mother 
Lode; hence, as might be expected, the river was 
rich, a large number not only mining here, but draw- 
ing their supplies from this base. Up to 1853, it had 
the appearance of becoming a town. Simpson, 
Beebee & Co., Bowman & Co., and others, had large 
stores, the latter persons also having a bridge across 
the river, and a hotel of considerable pretensions. 
Many of the settlers were .from Pittsburg, Penn., 
perhajDS induced to remain here by a fancied resem- 
blance to the forks of the Ohio at that town. Some 
were steamboat captains, some merchants and clerks, 
some workmen from the great machine shops, that 
even then had learned to rival Birmingham and the 
Clyde in making ponderous machinery. Captain 
John King, who had steamed up and down the Mis- 
sissippi a hundred times, told his stories, how he had 
entrapped a load of* passengers once at New Orleans, 
by pretending that he had a famous French general 
on board, having arranged for a smart Frenchmen to 
play the part, which worked to a charm, his boat 
being crowded, while the boat having the real gen- 
eral was a few hours behind — empty! Some of these 
men made fortunes and went home; others told their 
stories, all the better for a drink, which at last got 
the better of them, leaving them in a nameless grave. 
Beebee & Simpson were favorites among the miners 
for their thorough honesty in trade. " Have you some 
good coffee, sugar, flour, or bacon?" generally elicited, 
"only a moderately good article," which, however, 
was found to be as good as the market afforded; but 
the miners knew their men, and that answer was 
sufficient. Old man Simpson (E. M.), as the miners 
used to call him, was subsequently elected to the 
Legislature, and won the esteem of all he met, by 
his unswerving honesty and good sense. H. E. Hall, 
afterwards County Clerk, and Sam Loree, the latter 
now resident at Upper Rancheria, built saw-mills 
near the forks in the Summer of 1852. The former 
was swept away by the high water of the following 
Winter. The miners gradually encroached upon the 
town, one building after another giving away, and 
now a solitary house holds all the population, he 
watching for a quarter from an occasional footman 
across the bridge. The river now is not vexed with 
dam or wing-dam, but follows its own sweet will to 
the sea. 



23 1- 



aiSTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



A general air <>!' lost, forgotten, or dead pervades 
bhia seotion of the country, north as well as Bouth of 

the river. .Many springe ] 'cooling streams outof 

the bill sides, but no little bomes, decorated with 

vims ami trees as at other places, relieve the eyes 
wearied of the everlasting In-own of the bills. Some 
of the oabins buili in 1850 maintain a tottering 
Btanding, with the aid of props and braces. Inside 
you may see the gold-pan and pick as of yore, but 
the men, weary and worn with a quarter of a cen- 
tury of unsuccessful search forgold, seem waiting for 
the last act of the play, though still hoping to atrikeit. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 
EASTERN PART OF AMADOR COUNTY. 

Elevation Above Tide-water — Iono, Jackson, Volcano — Pine 
Grove — Dentzler's Flume House — Claiborne Foster's — Ante- 
lope Springs — Hipkins & Wiley's Station— Ham's Station- 
Mud Springs— Stevens' Lumber Yard — Emigrant's Pass — 
Amount of Timber Remaining — Climatic Effect of tbe Loss 
of Timber — Summer Pasture — As a Summer Resort — Prac- 
tical Jokes — Salt Springs — Mammoth Quartz Vein — Trout 
Fishing — Silver Mines — Sunset from the Sierras— Climate — 
Drouths — Freshets — Pain Table for Amador County, as Coin- 
piled by Frank Howard — Pain Table for Sacramento, cor- 
rected for Sutter Creek. 

This county is shaped much like the famous Pan- 
llandle of Virginia. As the force of the name may 
not be apparent to our younger readers, an explana- 
tion may be in order. A half century ago, before the 
invention of the cooking stove, telephone, high-heeled 
shoes, creme tie lis, and other modern improvements, 
the universal frying-pan had a handle some five feet 
long, to enable a woman to cook by the roai'ing fires 
that our ancestors found necessary to have in Win- 
ter, without roasting her face to more than a cherry 
red. In time every long strip of territory became a 
pan-handle. Amador county in the Sierras, has much 
the same attachment. The south fork of the Cosum- 
nes was established as tbe northern boundary, the 
north fork of the Mokelumne as the southern 
boundary; but as the Cosumnes was a short river, 
not reaching the summit, leaving the eastern boundary 
in doubt, Amador took tbe benefit of the doubt and 
set up a claim reaching to the State of Nevada. 
When Alpine county was created the dividing line 
between that county and Amador was fixed at Kirk- 
wood's house in Hope valley, leaving his house on 
the Amador side. This threw the line of the Amador 
wagon road. Silver lake and considerable of a tract 
of Alpine character, into Amador county. Though 
no towns or even hamlets abound in these mountain 
regions, they are in many respects the most interest- 
ing part of Amador, and no one should feel them- 
selves acquainted with the whole county until they 
have breathed the pure attenuated air, seen the tall 
pines, or fished in the streams of the upper Sierras. 
A statement of the different elevations, with some 
of the characteristic productions, will be a good 
starting point for a general description. 



THE ELEVATION ABOVE TIDE-WATER. 

lone 270 feet. Prevailing timber, oak and scrubby 
pine nut pine predominating; no sugar pine; nat- 
ural grasses, wild oats, etc.; all annuals (except along 
water courses) in perfection; soil and climate adapted 
to all fruits; apples, however, lack the flavor of the 
colder altitudes. 

Jackson 1,300 feet. Timber, oak and pine, pitch 
pine predominating; sugar pine makes its appear- 
ance; natural grasses inferior to the valley; fruits of 
all kinds flourish, including the orange, in favored 
localities; grapes are in perfection. 

Volcano 2,162 feet. Prevailing timber, oak and 
pine, pitch pine in perfection; sugar pine improving; 
fir makes its appearance, also the cedar, laurel, pep- 
per, nutmeg pine, etc.; apples improving; grapes at 
this point (owing to the situation of tbe town in a 
basin) arc liable to frosts; the wild plum, gooseberry 
and other berries, make their appearance. 

Pine Grove 2,675 feet. Prevailing timber, oak and 
pine, pitch pine predominating; pitch pine in perfec- 
tion; sugar pine improving and now towers above all 
the trees; cedar and fir becoming frequent; grapes 
good but require sheltered situations; apples have 
a sharp flavor; peaches late but good in flavor. Snow 
sometimes falls a foot in depth, remaining on the 
ground a week or two. 

Dentzler's Flume House 2,980 feet. Timber, oak 
and pine; nut pine ceases; pitch pine in perfection; 
sugar pine still improving; the fir and spruce now 
stately trees; new varieties of the cedar make their 
appearance; natural grasses scarce, varieties of ferns 
taking their place; grapes uncertain and lack sugar; 
apples improving; peaches good; wild plum and 
gooseberry plentiful, forming thickets; best potatoes 
in the county raised at this elevation. This includes 
the altitude of J. A. Foster's ranch, also F. Mace's 
and B. F. Whitmore's. Snow falls occasionally two 
or three feet deep, and may remain on a month or 
more. 

Claiborne Foster's 3,100 feet. Timber principally 
pine, all kinds in perfection; immense quantities in 
favorable localities, and so thick that the surveyors 
cannot run a hundred feet in a straight line; sugar 
pines may now be found six feet in diameter a hun- 
dred feet from the ground; best apples raised at this 
height; peaches sure in favorable localities, though 
the later varieties will not ripen; potatoes in perfec- 
tion; wild plums, gooseberries, chinquepins (a kind of 
dwarf chestnut) in abundance. Snow in considera- 
ble quantities. 

Antelope Springs 4,250 feet. Pines, firs and cedars 
now a solid forest; oak thinning out, only found on 
exposed points and dwarfed in stature; potatoes still 
good ; no attempts made to cultivate fruits above 
this point. 

Ilipkin's & Wiley's Station (on the Amador wagon 
road) 5,000 feet- Best pine lumber; the oak becomes 
insignificant. 

Ham's Station 5,425 feet. 



EASTERN PART OF THE COUNTY. 



235 



Mud Springs 5,975 feet. 

Steven's Lumber Yard 6,422 feet. Potatoes and 
alfalfa raised here; the best pine ceases, tamarack 
taking its place. Snow falls eight or ten feet deep. 

Emigrant Pass (second summit) 8,300 feet. 
Above seven thousand feet the timber is found 
only in sheltered depressions. The snow falls any- 
where from ten to twenty feet in depth, which may 
all melt and go away in the course of three days, if 
a warm rain prevails. The most striking features in 
all this upper region are the bare volcanic or gran- 
itic peaks, the heavy rains and floods denuding them 
of every particle of earth. This region is the source 
of the freshets which occasionally pour down and 
inundate the lower valleys. 

East of Yolcano but little farming is done. A few 
men cultivate small farms to supply the lumbermen 
with a portion of their needs. Hay and grain are 
hauled up, and exchanged for lumber. Hay, worth 
ten dollars in the valleys, becomes twenty dollars at 
the saw-mill, and lumber which is worth ten dollars 
at the mill, brings twenty dollars in the valle3 T s. 
Though the cash values have constantly decreased 
for twenty years or more the relative values of each 
have remained about the same. Nearly all the 
mountain land will raise grain or hay by ploughing 
and sowing it every year. It is a question of cost 
alone. If any means should be inaugurated whereby 
the lumber could be floated to market by water so 
that teams would not be required to haul the lumber 
down, and consequently have no inducement to haul 
hay and grain into the mountains, farming would be 
put on a remunerative basis. 

AMOUNT OF TIMBER STILL REMAINING. 

Formerly the pine timber covered the entire coun- 
try from the foot-hills up to the bald peaks of the 
Sierras. Below the altitude of one thousand feet, 
the timber was dwarfed and inferior. The trees 
lacked body. A few of the pitch pines may still be 
seen in the valleys, towering among oaks, but very 
much inferior to their tall, stately brothers of the 
mountains. A cluster of fair-sized pines once stood 
on the south side of Jackson creek, where it runs 
through the green ledge. These were all cut down 
and hauled to Lancha Plana some twenty years 
since for bridge timbers. Between lone and Jack- 
son scarcely a pine can be seen, and around the 
latter place they are by no means plenty. A ^cw, 
far up the side of Butte mountain, have escaped the 
slaughtering axe of the lumbermen. One sugar 
pine, too crabbed and crooked for shakes, still holds 
its long arms to the breeze, the only specimen to bo 
seen for miles around. At Pine Grove enough ai'e 
left to give a plausible reason for the name of the 
town. Practically, the timber is cut away for a dis- 
tance of thirty-five miles from the foot-hills, the 
little that is left within that distance being in inac- 
cessible places. The sawed lumber is only a small 
portion of the amount annually used. Hundreds of 
teams are hauling lagging and timbers for the under- 



ground works which daily swallow up loads of each. 
The introduction of water as a motive power for 
driving the machinery saves a consumption of wood 
amounting to thousands of cords a year; but no sub- 
stitute can be found for the underground timbers. 
The Plymouth cluster of mines have used up nearly 
all the available lumber along the line of the ditch, 
and now have to rely on the supplies farther up in 
the mountains. The side-hills along the Cosumnes 
and Mokelumne, as well as Dry creek and Sutter 
creek, are now being denuded of everything that 
will burn, to be floated down in the high waters of 
Winter. Bryant and others put an immense amount 
of lumber, consisting of logs, cord-wood, cuts and 
bolts of sugar pine, into the Mokelumne, far up in 
the mountains, to be floated down and taken out near 
Wood bridge, for a match and sash factory. Thou- 
sands of cords, floating out on the bottoms of the 
Mokelumne, or caught in the rocks of the canons 
above, were left to rot. In some instances heavy 
damages were collected of them for the piles of tim- 
ber left on the overflowed ranches. 

Feeble efforts have been made by the United 
States inspectors to prevent the waste of timber, but 
our liberal land laws enable any one to make a claim 
on the land, strip off the timber and then abandon 
it, without much expense or trouble. 

Benjamin Ross, of Yolcano, a deputy United States 
Surveyor, thinks the lumber belt is hardly reached; 
that the portion already cut over, though t'o.irty 
miles or more in width, is only the ragged edge of 
the true belt. Others have also expressed the same 
opinion; while others, whose opportunities for obser- 
vation are good, feel much alarm over the destruc- 
tion that is going on. A thorough survey of each 
section will be required to set the matter at rest. 

In all ages the destruction of the growing timber 
of a country has been considered a most disastrous 
proceeding. The old Greeks bestowed the most 
opprobrious epithet on those who would wantonly 
kill trees. Trees were religiously preserved as nec- 
essary to the regular fall of rain. Perhaps it was 
for this that the priest and oracles taught, that every 
tree was the abode of a spirit who would certainly 
avenge the destruction of its home. If any tree 
could make a fitting residence for a god, the sugar 
pine with its straight shaft, as beautiful as a Grecian 
column, a hundred feet high, without a limb or knot 
to mar its magnificent proportions, would be the one. 
Yet a shake-splitter will ruthlessly cut one of these 
monarchs down, use a few feet to make shakes, or, if 
it doe3 not quite suit him, abandon it, and move on 
to another, which he will serve in like manner. Far 
in advance of the regular lumberman may be seen the 
shake-splitter selecting the best trees, which he will 
destroy to get means to purchase a bottle of whisky 
and sack of flour, or get enough to indulge in a day 
or two of debauchery in the nearest town. 

The only estimate of the quantity of lumber 
remaining in the mountains, that the writer is aware 






HISTORY OF AMADOE COl NTY, CALIFORNIA. 



of, is thai of I !apt. .1. 0. Ham. who built the canal 
known by liis name. Hi- estimate is as follows : — 

Common lumber (feet) .1.2011000,000 

Sugar pine 72.ouo.oou 

Cords of w I - siMi.ooo.ouii 

(lining timbers (sticks) 2.000,000 

He proposes to carry this all to San Francisco by 

means of B canal ami railroad. It is likely that the 

general government would interfere if this project 
was undertaken. 

CLI.MATH' EFFECT OF THE LOSS OF THE TIMBER. 

Whether the destruction of timber has already 
affected any change in the climate, is an open ques- 
tion. The thirty years during which a rain-gauge 
has been kept, is not a sufficient length of time to 
determine the average amount of rain, as one or 
two exceptional seasons would make the amount 
greater or less than the general average, and lead 
to a wrong conclusion. After a series of dry seasons 
it seems easy to prove a serious change, and after 
a rain like the one occurring in February, 1878, no 
change at all. The old Spaniards speak of seasons 
of drouth. The year 1825 was said to be so desti- 
tute of rain that even large rivers dried up, the San 
Joaquin being so low that cattle could ford it at 
Stockton; but as no cattle were ever seen at that 
point prior to 1843 (except when stolen by the 
Indians), when Gulnac, in the interest of Weber, 
established a cattle rancho there, the tradition is 
not worth much. The tremendous bursts of rain 
or cloud breaks, seem to be a phenomenon peculiar 
to treeless countries. 

There is one condition that may mitigate to some 
extent the cutting away of the timber. Everywhere 
there is springing up an immense number of small 
pines, hundreds for every one that was cut away. 
For miles around Volcano they have started up so 
thick, that a hundred to the square rod is a low 
estimate. In some places these second-growth pines 
are a foot or more in diameter, though where there 
are a hundred to the rod, they may be only a few 
inches in thickness. The writer of this article 
assisted, in 1856, in building a small reservoir in 
Boardman's gulch, near Yolcano. A small pine, 
about an inch in diameter, was left in the embank- 
ment, as likely to do no harm. Twenty-four years 
afterward it had grown to be considerably over two 
feet in diameter. This may be considered excep- 
tional, but hundreds in the immediate vicinity, which 
have sprung up since, are a foot or more through. 
If these young pines could be protected, it is not 
likely that a serious change of climate need be appre- 
hended. As a commercial speculation, an invest- 
ment in young pine trees is quite as promising as 
stocks in Arizona or Colorado, or even better than 
cutting them down and sowing the ground to grain. 

SUMMER PASTURE. 

Near the head-waters of the American, Cosuranes, 
and Mokelumne rivers, are many valleys which pro- 



duce an abundance of clover, and other grasses. 
Thither, in the Summer, many herds of cattle and 
sheep are driven, to remain until the falling snows 
or cold weather remind them of the return of Winter. 
Butter, of a quality equal to that made at Point 
Reyes, is manufactured in considerable quantities. 
The cattle, fattened on these green pastures, bring 
an extra price. The work of tending these herds, 
though lonely, is not without enjoyment. The clear, 
cold water; the pure, exhilarating air; the glorious 
prospects from the hills; trout fishing in the streams; 
and an occasional deer, or perhaps the advent of a 
grizzly, serve to keep the mind employed, and build 
up a wasted nervous system. Almost every valley 
is thus claimed as Summer pasture by laws, or rather 
common usage. Cattle pastured here in the Sum- 
mer retain a lively memory of the green grass, and 
every Spring, on the approach of warm weather, 
manifest an intense uneasiness, and, if possible, 
break away and make their way by themselves. 
The instinct of the buffalo in emigrating from Texas 
to Montana, is perhaps of the same origin. 

AS A SUMMER RESORT 

The upper valleys are unsurpassed. It is true there 
are no such tremendous gorges as the Yo Semite, or 
groves of the Sequoia Gigantea, but there are num- 
berless sources of amusement and health. Silver 
lake is one of the most beautiful sheets of water in 
the world, and a sojourn on its banks in the Summer 
is one of the pleasantest enjoyments possible. 
The lake is full of small trout, that despise all the 
patent flies and other deceitful contrivances for their 
destruction, and bite eagerly at, as Izaak Walton 
would say, a hook baited with a grasshopper or a 
vile worm. While they do not bite so as to load 
down a man or a boat in a few hours, the angler is 
sure of enough to make him a hearty supper, and 
also the necessary appetite to relish, as well as a 
tone of stomach to safely and profitably, for the 
body at least, dispose of them. Nothing can be bet- 
ter to restore a worn out nervous system, or repair 
debility induced by overwork of any kind, than a 
residence of a few weeks in the Sierras. A delicate, 
feeble woman, Avho had to be lifted into a carriage 
at the beginning of the journey, has been known to 
improve so rapidly in a few weeks as to get up in 
the morning and, from very exuberance of feeling 
give half a dozen Indian yells that could be beard a 
mile, or catch up a pair of oars and row a half-mile 
out into the lake, singing and shouting in a way that 
would bring the police down on her or cause an ex- 
amination for lunacy if done in a city. 

The peaks around about are excellent hills to climb 
to give one wind and muscle, and try them, too. The 
months of July, August and September are best for 
these visits, and a tent with plenty of bedding the 
best outfit. Hotels are rather scarce and not of ex- 
travagant size when found, and a dozen or two 
visitors. would tax the lodging capacity, as well as 
the larder, to the utmost. Fresh beef and milk can 







HAM'S STATION, HOTELandRANCH ofA. C.HAM. 
AWADaR, WAGON ROAD UMi-s-ROM SILVER LAKE,AMADOR COUNTY, CAL. 



h'$L 




RESI DENCE, RANCH ^BUSINESS PLACE of A.C.HAM 

AQUEDUCT CITY, AMADOR COUNTY, CAL. 



EASTERN PART OF THE COUNTY. 



237 



generally be found at the Summer ranches in the 
vicinity, and bacon, coffee and bread will always 
relish when nothing better is at hand. Camp on the 
shores of the lake, for a mile or two away there is 
frost every night; but the lake, absorbing the sun's 
rays during the day, parts with the heat at night, 
making a delightful temperature for sleep and rest 
Thunder peak, south of Silver lake, is said to exhibit at 
times some very curious electrical phenomena. It will 
be remembered by some of our readers that a scientist 
has recently discovered that zones of different elec- 
trical conditions are found at different heights ; 
perhaps some of our young scientists may work out 
this problem on Thunder mountain. Several persons 
report curious things, such as quite perceptible 
shocks, as if from a Leyden vial, flashes of flame 
from the points of knives, sparks from metallic but- 
tons, etc. 

PRACTICAL JOKES. 

The following letters, from Ed. Briggs of Ply- 
mouth to the Dispatch, will give one a vivid idea 
of the rollicksome feelings a party is likely to have, 
and the consequent character of their amusements: — 

Plymouth, August 26, 1880. 

Editor Dispatch: I promised several sports in 
different parts of the county that I would, on my 
return from a hunting and fishing excursion to the 
head-waters of the north fork of the American river, 
write a brief description of the same, and send it to 
you for publication. 

Our company consisted of the following well- 
known gentlemen: James Dohman, captain; J. E, 
Brown, guide; L. G. Noris, assistant; G. K. Goble, 
camp guard; Frank Potter, teamster; E. B. Muggy, 
commissary; J. J. Dohman, and C. W. Wild, cooks. 
With a four-horse team loaded with a month's sup- 
ply of provisions, ammunition, etc., we set out upon 
the third of August, calculating to spend a month in 
the Sierras, on the head-waters of the north Ameri- 
can river. 

Nothing of interest occurred on the journey 
until we reached what is called Silver creek. Here 
we found quite an encampment of excursionists from 
Sacramento and other localities, all in fine health 
and good spirits. The fishing here is excellent. 
The waters of this beautiful stream come pouring 
and dashing down from the snow-capped mountains, 
foaming and sparkling in the beautiful sunlight, in 
its native purity, cool from the snowy mountains, 
and clear as crystal; and oh, what a treat, after leav- 
ing the brackish and mineral water of the valleys 
and foot-hills, to sit beside this beautiful stream 
beneath the shadows of those towering firs and 
pines, and drink from this pure fountain. Here we 
struck camp for the remainder of the day, our fish- 
ing tackle was unpacked, and soon our entire com- 
pany was busy trying their luck among the finery 
tribe which inhabits this stream in great abundance. 
The creeping shadows of evening now warn us that 
it is time to repair to camp for supper, and as the 
boys began to drop in, each with a long string of 
regular beauties, their countenances radiant with 
smiles, tell but too well how delighted they all felt 
with their success. All hands now busy preparing 
the fish for the cooks, who, with their pans and corn- 
meal, begin their work, and in a few moments we 
have all surrounded our frugal table, when the con- 



versation goes back to the boys left behind, with 
such remarks as, " now if old George Durham was 
here, wouldn't he enjoy this." I then told the story 
about George and " Put." coming into a wood camp 
once up in the mountains; that the cook had pre- 
pared a whole sheep for the wood-choppers, but 
George being very hungry, could not wait for the 
boys to come in, and persuaded the cook to let him 
eat; that to the astonishment of the cook, and the 
disappointment of the hungry wood-choppers, and 
in spite of the remonstrances of the cook, he ate the 
entire sheep at one meal. Cook, Breese, and other 
fellow sportsmen were not forgotten, and the demi- 
john was brought forth, and a health drank to all the 
sports left behind. Then the big fish-eat com- 
menced in earnest. Supper over, and pipes well 
filled, amongst other topics it was discussed what 
we should name our first camp, when one very 
enthusiastic Democrat proposed to call it Camp 
Hancock, in honor of the distinguished gentleman 
who heads the Democratic ticket, whilst an equally 
sanguine Republican proposed Garfield as an appro- 
priate name. The arguments on both sides were 
put forth in a very forcible manner, and for a while 
it seemed that the camp would be left without a 
name, as neither side was willing to yield, when 
luckily, a very conservative member of the party 
proposed a compromise name, which seemed to sat- 
isfy the entire party, and the name of "Garcock" 
was unanimously adopted, and the new name, with 
the names of the entire party, was the next morning 
neatly carved on a beautiful tamarack tree. The 
fishing being so good, and the feed for our animals 
so plentiful, we concluded to enjoy another day at 
Camp Garcock, in Avhich we were equally successful, 
catching all the fish we wanted, and at every recur- 
ring meal the flask and camp jokes went round. 
The deer hunt of Dry canon, in which our mutual 
friend W. T. Jones participated, was related in a 
most interesting manner by L. G. Norris and others 
of the party; and after spending a very happy day 
and night, we again packed up and started for the 
head-waters of the Rubicon river, one of the finest 
deer parks in California, and after two days of hard 
travel over one of the roughest countries there is in 
the mountains, we camped for the night, within six 
miles of the park. The next morning we packed 
the horses — leaving the wagon behind — and after 
considerable difficulty, reached our camping place 
about five o'clock p. m. Away up among the lofty 
peaks of the Sierras, and the shadows of evening 
again began to creep over the towering rocks that 
have stood sentinel over this lonely spot for centuries 
gone by, and as we listen to the mournful music of 
the wind as it comes sighing through her cragged 
heights, we became conscious of that sublime power 
and greatness which awes and uplifts like God him- 
self. 

This park is located where the Rubicon comes 
dashing down from the summits of the mountains in 
all the grandeur that nature could invest it with — 
the mountains on each side of the stream, rising in 
regular amphitheatrical style, that is, in a succession 
of benches one above the other, for miles on either 
side, these benches or tables varying in width — 
sometimes the ascent from one bench to another 
being very steep and rocky. Among these rocks 
on the benches are the homes of the fleet-footed and 
keen-sighted deer; and from the vast numbers found 
here, it would seem that this is to them a favorite 
resort. We found them here in countless numbers, 
from the tiny fawn in all the beauty of his spotted 



238 



HISTOID OK AMADOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



dress, to the largost back, with boras liken young 
forest This splendid park has never, as yet, been 
disturbed by the shepherd, and in all probability 
never will, as it is almosl inaccessible for man or 
beast, and I do think there should be some steps 
taken by the proper authorities to secure this as a 
public park to the exclusion of all shepherds, for it 
is an established fact among hunters that sheep and 
deer will not range together. 

1 am admonished by counting my pages that I am 
trespassing upon your valuable space, and will hasten 
to a close for this time. Suffice it to say that we 
spent ten days in this secluded place, with more 
excitement and pleasure than was ever enjoyed by 
us before; we killed twenty-one deer, and caught 
three little spotted fawns which we very reluctantly 
had to turn loose again, as it^was impossible for us to 
obtain milk for their subsistance; but we have them 
all marked, and we may at some future day have the 
pleasure of reclaiming them with the trusty rifle. 
We could fill two or three columns with incidents of 
the hunt, which we know would interest the sport- 
ing boys, but we cannot crowd it into this letter. 
Probably at some future time we will write a letter 
of incidents connected with this remarkable hunt. 

We were gone three weeks, and all returned in 
excellent health, thinking that no party that has 
gone to the mountains this summer has had a better 
time than we have. Nimrod. 

Plymouth, Sept. 9, 1880. 

Editor Dispatch : Having been strongly urged 
by a goodly number of your readers for another let- 
ter descriptive of some of the incidents connected with 
our late extraordinary hunt in the mountains, I 
hope will suffice as a sufficient apology for our 
appearance again in your columns with another 
sporting letter. Then, to commence with, we wish 
to state, that before our departure, we all had a 
mutual agreement that nothing that we should say 
or do should, in any way, mar or disturb the friendly 
feeling that existed one for the other — in other 
words, jokes should all be free. It was a good time 
we were out for, and a good time we would have. 
Almost the first thing that attracted our special 
attention in our new camp, was a fight with a large 
rattlesnake, which infests this part in untold num- 
bers. Almost every rock has its rattlesnake, some- 
times two or three, and some of our boys were 
terribly afraid of snakes, particularly our young 
friend Wilds. He could see more snakes than all 
the rest of the boys put together. 1 think it was 
the second day that Mr. Norris and Mr. Muzzy killed 
a large deer close to camp, and in dressing the deer, 
a happy idea struck Muzzy for a good practical joke 
on Wilds. So he carefully rolled up the small entrails 
of the deer, and packed them into camp in his 
pocket, and then posted all the boys, except Wilds. 
After supper we made a big camp-fire, all hands lying 
around, smoking and recounting the exciting scenes 
of the day. Among other topics the number of 
snakes seen and killed; the habits of the snake, and 
particularly his venom and great antipathy to the 
whole human race. During this time Muzzy had 
found a place alongside of Wilds, and taking out his 
deer guts, without Wilds' knowledge, carefully 
pinned one end to the seat of Wilds' pant3, while the 
rest of it, about ten feet, lay in a heap by his side, 
all hands awaiting the discovery with suppressed 
mirth. Pretty soon he rolled over on his side, and 
his hand came in contact with the gut. "With one 
wild yell he sprang to his feet, clearing the fire at 
one bound, and as he went over the gut wrapped 



Away goes Wilds 
Oh, my God, boys, 



around a small brand of fire. 
around the camp shouting : — 

■ Snake! help' shoot!" and ' 
don't let it eat me alive!" 

Three or four of the boys fired off their guns, and 
by this time the whole party had become so con- 
vulsed that they were rolling and tumbling on the 
ground. The snake caught ai*ound a bush and 
pulled loose, and Wilds fell breathless in among 
where the boys were rolling and laughing. He now 
began to take in the situation, and raising himself up 
he says : — 

"Now look here, you d d fools, I don't see any- 
thing funny about this, and if it wasn't for breaking 

our pledge, I would lick every d d scoundrel of 

3 r ou. You all think you have played smart, don't 
you ?" By this time the demijohn was produced, and 
I tell you there was justice done her this time. The 
next morning Wilds and Brown were out early, and 
killed a fine large buck, the biggest I ever saw in my 
life. Wilds had it now, for he had found out that it 
was Muzzy that had perpetrated the joke on him; 
so he takes the head off the buck with a long neck, 
then carefully arranging it on a stick, he placed it so 
it looked like a deer lying beside a rock, with nothing 
visible of him but his head. Next morning he in- 
vites Muzzy to accompany him on a hunt. He takes 
him up on the right side of the rock, then he whis- 
pers to him to keep a sharp lookout. Just then, 
bang goes Muzzy's gun, Wilds pulls up, but Muzzy 
says, " hold, Claib, I want this one," (up to this time 
he had not killed any) bang, again, with the same, 

result; d n you, he says, I will fetch you, and this 

time he missed the head and struck the stick, and 
the head fell to the ground; he dropped his rifle in 
the excitement, and rushed up; imagine his surprise 
to find a deer head without a body. It was now 
Wilds' time, who sings out, ''look out for snakes." He 
describes Muzzy as looking more like an idiot than 
anything else he could compare him to. Muzzy now 
tries to bribe Claib to say nothing about it when 
they return to camp, but he was uncompromising, 
and that night the jug and the joke went high. It 
was about this time that Mr. Norris placed the deer 
head, which was literally working with deer "ticks," 
under Captain Dohman's blankets; he had not lain 
there very long until he sprang up exclaiming "Light- 
ning has struck the traveler, or the traveler has 
struck lightning, one or the other." The Captain did 
not sleep much that night, but he affirms that there 
was not less than a bushel of ticks on him at once. 

A hunter from Virginia City, named J. N. Eobin- 
son, joined our party while we were up there, whom 
we found to be a very genial, social gentleman, and 
a remarkably successful hunter, and devotedly at- 
tached to this hunting-ground. He informed us that 
he had spent two months each year for the past four 
years, at this place, and always succeeded in killing 
all the deer he wanted, and in honor of him we call 
the place "Pobinson's Park." 

This will now finish this hunt, but as our quail 
season soon commences, we expect to have rare sport 
in this end of the county, and will, from time to time 
try and make your sporting column interesting to at 
least the sports of the gun. Nimrod. 

SALT SPRINGS. 

These are about six miles south of Silver lake, on 
the south side of the Mokelumne river, and con- 
sequently in Calaveras county; but properly belong 
to the Silver lake region, and merit the notice of all 



EASTERN PART OF THE COUNTY. 



239 



who visit that vicinity. They are on an elevated 
bench of rock a few yards from the river, and, unless 
special search for them is made, might be passed 
unnoticed by persons fishing along the river. The 
salt water is found in holes of various sizes, from a 
few inches to three feet in depth, in the solid granite 
rock which characterizes the whole region. These 
are so regular in their shape as to induce a belief 
that they are hollowed out by human agency, in 
the manner that the holes where the Indian women 
grind or pound their acorns and pine nuts are, which 
they resemble. Reports differ as to their number. 
Captain J. C. Ham, estimates them at nine hundred. 
Eli Smith, of Volcano, who has visited them several 
times, thinks there may be one hundred and fifty. 
The holes are always found filled with water. At 
the bottom is a mixture of dirt and salt, which, 
being washed, leaves a residuum of remai'kably pure 
table salt. The water with which the holes are 
filled appears to have trickled over the rocks from 
above, and seems to come from a small shallow lake 
or pool, a hundred or two feet in diameter, which is 
surrounded by tall reeds and grass, so that one 
might pass quite near without seeing the water. 
There is no apparent trail leading to these salt 
wells, but as the surrounding rock is the indestruc- 
table and trackless granite, no conclusion as to their 
origin or use can be formed from that circumstance, 
as thousands might visit the place, and leave no 
trail. In the early days of silver mining on the 
Comstock ledge, the Indians brought in considerable 
quantities of salt, which was thought to have been 
found out on the plains beyond Carson river. It 
seems likely that the whole Washoe tribe may have 
for centuries annually visited this place for salt; 
that the wells were gradually hollowed out, and 
constantly enlarged by use. A thorough examina- 
tion of the subject might reveal many interesting 
things in Indian history. 

MAMMOTH QUARTZ VEIN. 

In wandering over the rocks one will see innu- 
merable quartz veins of all sizes and kinds, crossing 
each other with faults and other geological phe- 
nomena, highly suggestive of the disturbed condi- 
tion of affairs when earth was young, ere the Sierras 
were lifted from the sea, or of the earth in our own 
time, thirty thousand feet below, where new Sierras 
are slowly being formed. Between Silver lake and 
the salt wells is a quartz vein, said to be the largest 
in the State. It appears to be barren of gold, which, 
however, may, in its own time, have been deposited 
near the surface, as in our present worked veins, 
twenty thousand feet above the present summits of 
the Sierras. 

THE RUBY OR SCHORL MINE 

Is in this vicinity, on what is called Burley's peak. 
This is a form of quartz crystallization of various 
colors — white, green, red, and black, some of the 
varieties bordering upon emerald. It is likely that a 
thorough search might reveal valuable stones in this 



vicinity. The mine is claimed by J. C. Ham, of 
Aqueduct City. 

TROUT FISHING. 

Mention has been made of the small trout in Sil- 
ver lake. Whether they are of different species, or 
whether the climatic character of the lake prevents 
their growth, is uncertain, but no large fish are 
found in the lake, while in the streams around are 
trout of several pounds in weight, which have all the 
wariness and vigor, when hooked, characteristic of 
the trout family. The unlucky fisherman will see 
hundreds of "fine speckled beauties" lying at ease 
in a hole twenty feet deep, from which fly nor worm 
will draw them. Some persons in times past, in 
revenge no doubt, have blown them up with dynam- 
ite, or strangled them with pounded soap-root. 
The law makes these acts high misdemeanors, but 
who cares for law forty miles in the woods, when 
the trout refuse to bite at a reasonable bait ? 

The rocks in all this vicinity are Racier-polished, 
and none but an active, sure-footed man can clamber 
safely over them. 

SILVER MINES. 

Some twenty -five miles west of the summit argen- 
tiferous galena in considerable quantities has been 
found. The slates and other rocks in the vicinity of 
the junction of the old Placerville and Volcano emi- 
grant roads have all the ajspearance of being metal- 
liferous, and may yet prove the source of much 
wealth. Lyman and Sdas Tubbs, and others, made 
the discovery, some years since, of such an outcrop; 
but they have never developed the prospect. 

MAGNIFICENT VIEWS FROM THE SIERRAS. 

Standing on one of the western spurs of the Sier- 
ras, the valleys of the San Joaquin and Sacramento, 
as well as the hills of the Coast Range, are in full 
view; Mount Shasta in the north, and the treeless 
plains of the south, the sharp outlines of the Mendo- 
cino peaks, Diablo in the middle, with the hazy 
atmosphere, now shading everything with the tint 
of autumnal ripeness, now drifting away^towards the 
sea in crimson clouds, and leaving the air so clear that 
the streets of Sacramento, though fifty miles away, 
are distinctly visible, are elements out of which the 
most splendid sunsets that imagination can conceive,' 
will occasionally appear. 

Sometimes the fog comes rolling in from the 
ocean like a sea of molten silver, spreading over the 
valleys, until only the tips of the highest mountains 
are visible above the feathery masses of vapor that 
lie at rest, or. slowing melting, blend and fuse into a 
thousand shapes, reminding one of an invading host 
taking the land, and, sometimes, of the spiritual 
world, where millions of departed souls re-enact the 
stories of their earthly careers. Sometimes, at the 
close of a storm, when the clouds, in dense, black 
masses, hang suspended around the summits of the 
Sierras and high over the plains, the setting sun, 
blazing through the rifts, will strike across the wide 
plains, tinging the hills with a rich orange hue, and 



240 



BISTORT OF \ MA DOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



the oloade with orimson and purple, giving one an 
idea of possible landscapes in the better land. 

Again the thunder clouds gather in dark masses 
around t In- base of the mountains and over the wide 
valley, leaving all Berene above; hill and cloud 
answering each other in lightning flashes and peal on 
peal of rolling thunder that dies away in deep mut- 
tering a hundred miles distant, until we could almost 
believe that nil the artillery of the world was parked 
in tho greal valley, engaged as an accompaniment in 
a grand anthem Bung by the millions of all ages. 

Bayard Taylor, the poel and traveler, expressed 
the opinion that the view from a point a lew miles 
above the .Mountain Spring House, was the most mag- 
nificent landscape to be seen in the world. How 
much the world has lost, that a man, with his 
soul to appreciate, his eyes to see, and his pen to de- 
scribe, has not seen the landscape mentioned in one 
of its magnificent moods. If he had passed over it 
as many times as the writer of this article has, he 
could not have failed to see that which would have 
tasked his pen, facile as it was, to the utmost, to have 
described. Every season has its moods. The Win- 
ter with its storms sweeping the horizon with clouds, 
drenching everything in falling rain, alternating 
with clear days when every arm of the bay and 
rivers, every tree, every dwelling for fifty miles 
around is so distinct as to appear like a view through 
a telescope reversed; the Spring with its lights and 
shadows chasing each other with railroad speed, or 
resting for hours in lazy dalliance over wide por- 
tions of the plains; the Summer, with the haze blend- 
ing with the brown hills and plains ripening into 
autumnal tints; the Autumn in dreamy obscurity, 
its deep golden veil occasionally lifted aside or piled 
in majestic folds on the Coast Eange by the contend- 
ing sea and land breezes, may well cause the painter 
to throw down bis brushes in despair, or the writer 
to wish for a pen tipped with fire, so utterly above 
all human ability is the task of giving a representa- 
tion of the constantly varying, beautiful, grand, or 
awful landscapes. 

Let us stand on one of the foot-hills at the close of 
a day in October. If the gods of the air are favor- 
able to our wishes, and grant us an exhibition of 
their powers, the deep haze, which all the day has 
hung around the mountains and over the plains, 
wrapping everything in a dreamy uncertainty, will 
gradually settle away towards the Coast Eange of 
mountains, bringing trees, orchards, vineyards, and 
grain-fields into high relief. The oaks and pines in 
the mountains and plains will blend in the retreating 
haze until the one is lost in the other. The retreat- 
ing veil will now form long wavy lines along the 
Coast Eange, the tops of which are visible, and, by 
their presence, serve to aid in the illusion. The 
sinking sun, striking through the horizontal cloud- 
rifts, tinges all the openings with crimson and purple, 
like hills and mountains of a far-off land. The hills 
of gold and precious stones, the gates of pearl seem 



just in sight. These wide and glorious valleys must 
be peopled by millions on millions of happy spirits. 
We see the rivers and lakes, for they are but the 
continuation of that which we know to be water. 
We can almost hear the songs of the beautiful beings 
who float in fairy boats on those crystal lakes. The 
air seems filled with the soft murmur of music that 
comes in gentle echoes from the thousand harps 
played by angel hands. Lo! towards the south a 
breeze through the Golden Gate makes a riffle in the 
crimson clouds, rolling them into domes and amphi- 
theaters. The horizontal lines of the cloud-strata 
are crossed by perpendicular divisions. A great city, 
vast in its proportions, with its streets and squares, 
lofty towers, temples, and palaces, comes into view. 
Yes, it is Eome. That huge circle of towering height 
is the Coliseum. That dome is the Pantheon. We 
hear the fierce debates in the forum. We hear 
Cicero denouncing Cataline. We see the triumphal 
processions with kings chained to the chariot-wheels 
of the conquerors. We hear the eighty thousand 
spectators in the Coliseum shout as the victims of the 
popular thirst for blood go down under the fierce 
blows of the successful gladiators. "We see Caesar, 
the Imperator, throw his robe over his head, and die 
like a god. We see the hordes of Attila rushing 
through the streets, slaughtering the miserable 
inhabitants, until the very swords are weary of blood. 
Eome of Augustus Caesar! where art thou? As the 
shades of night deepen over the mimicry of thy 
palaces and amphitheaters, so did the barbarism 
bury the beautiful, the glorious, the good, and the 
infamous, in one common ruin. 

The gorgeous pageant does not end here. Pericles 
summons the Athenians, and Mount Diablo becomes 
Mount Olympus, towering above the Acropolis. I 
see the Parthenon, with its unapproachable archi- 
tecture. I see the hill crowned with palaces and 
works of art, and its six thousand statues, every 
fragment of which is now worth its weight of gold. 
1 hear the finished periods of the Athenian orators. 
I hear the shouts of the people at the Olympic 
games. I see the approaching clouds, like the 
barbarism by which Athens was surrounded, gradu- 
ally obliterate every line of the sunset scene. 

Lo! another age appears. On the treeless plains 
of the San Joaquin the mimicry of cloudy fabric 
goes on. The pyramids, dark and sombre, now fast 
sinking into obscurity, rise to view, dim as if the 
vital energy that had first raised them had exhausted 
itself, and the very spirits had become faded spectres 
in a spectral world. The obscurity of four thousand 
years rests on these cloudy shapes of the toil of 
millions. Is there death and change in the spiritual 
world also? Have the millions, who cultivated the 
valley of the Nile, who built the cities of Memphis, 
with its temples that almost defy the tooth of time, 
ceased to re-enact, even in the spectral world, the 
actions of real life? Is a future existence dependent 
on the permanency of works? 








1 1 ill- -W m 



nipw - v/v 




Residence and Ranch of NASON C. Williams, 

Near Volcano .Amador C° Cal. 




Residence, Ranch and Lumberyard of H.D.FARNHAM, 
Oleta, Amador C° Cal. 



y**r~* gsaaiaaag 



LiTH.BRirroi* 4- naY.e.r- 



EASTERN PART OF THE COUNTY. 



241 



Gradually the crimson and purple deepened into 
night, and Cassar, and Pharaoh, and Demosthenes, 
and the millions of spirits that had gathered to 
build the spectral towers, temples, and pyramids, 
vanished as the sun set behind the hills, and the 
dusty road, the cooling breeze from the mountains, 
and darkness, brought back real life, with its duties 
and vicissitudes. Is it all imagination? Is there no 
mind in the gorgeous landscapes that occasionally 
gild all the western horizon? Why should not the 
spirits of the departed, wandering in ether, pile 
together the half material substance of the air, and 
lead the world to a sense of beauty, and glory, and 
power? 

CLIMATE. 

So much has been written about the climate of 
California that it would seem useless to attempt 
any further description, especially for California 
readers. The temperature falls a little lower in 
Winter than in- Sacramento^ and rises a little higher 
in Summer. But once or twice during thirty years' 
observation did the temperature at lone valley fall 
to 16° above zero. The coldest spell perhaps ever 
experienced was on 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th of 
March, 1859, when the ground, in shady places, 
remained frozen all day. A dry north wind helped 
to reduce the temperature. The ground in some 
places was frozen two inches thick. The season 
was early, fruit trees being in full bloom, which was 
mostly destroyed. Grass and grain in many places 
was killed, so that as the sun came up it wilted and 
turned black. The temperature occasionally falls 
to the freezing point during a storm; an inch or two 
of snow may then fall, to remain on until the sun 
comes out, and then vanish in a few minutes. Occa- 
sionally there is a flurry of hail, which has been 
known to seriously injure young vines and fruit 
trees. The most dreaded, because most destructive, 
feature is the dry, north wind, that occasionally 
sweeps over the country. "Whence it cometh, or 
whither it goeth, no man can tell," but the moist 
ground becomes dry and hard; the promising crop 
droops after three or four days, and, if the season 
has been dry, the farmer hastens to cut his fields of 
grain for hay. So drying is this wind that the fur- 
niture in the house will warp and crack, wagons 
will fall down, and general shrinkage takes place. 
The atmosphere is charged with electricit3 r , and 
combing one's head will produce a multitude of 
sparks. This wind is the bane of farming in Cali- 
fornia, but it does not prevail in the mountains as 
in the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys. In 
Amador it sometimes injures, but scarcely ever ruins 
a crop. 

DROUTHS. 

Once only during the history of Amador county 
has there been an utter failure from drouth. In the 
winter of 1863-64, so little rain fell that scarce a 
fourth of a crop was raised, though, in the opinion of 
the best farmers, early sewing and deep, thorough 
31 



ploughing would have doubled the yield. So short 
was the straw, both of hay and grain, that aprons 
were attached to the reapers and mowers to save a 
little handful which otherwise would be lost among 
the clods and stubble. Barns and granaries were 
empty, and cattle starved by the thousand. A few 
clouds would occasionally pass over, but they refused 
to part with their treasures, and the dry Summer 
completed the failure of the crops. 

FRESHETS. 

As might be expected the heavy rain-fall some- 
times damages the farmer and miner. The snow 
will fall perhaps ten or twenty feet deep in the upper 
parts of the Sierras, and a warm rain will send it 
down in a three days run. Such a snow-fall, followed 
by a warm rain, occurred in December, 1861, inun- 
dating all the valleys, carrying off fences, and, in 
some instances, buildings. The overflow was much 
increased by the moving sand and gravel which 
obstructed the channels. But when the water went 
down the farmer went to ploughing, and bounteous 
crops rewarded his labor, and one year's work re- 
paired all the losses. A few farms were injured with 
" slickens," and, in some places, as at the Q Ranch, 
the streams cut new channels, but the losses were 
trifling compared with the drouth two years after. 
Sometimes a " cloud burst," more particularly de- 
scribed in the history of Jackson, Avill create an over- 
flow over a limited space, as did the one which swept 
Jackson and Sutter Creeks in February, 1878. But 
these are necessarily limited in territory, and though 
destructive enough when they prevail, do not bank- 
rupt whole counties like the ice floods on the Mis- 
souri or Susquehanna rivers. 

RAIN TABLE FOR AMADOR COUNTY. 

Compiled by Frank Howard, of Sutter Creek, tor the 
Years 1S74-75 -76-77-78-79-80. 



MONTHS. 


1874. 


1875. 


1876. 


1877. 


1878. 


1879. 


1880. 


September 

October 

November 

December 


* 
4.12 
7.50 

.36 


.66 

14.04 

5.04 


3.61 

.18 


.71 
1.93 
1.40 


.11 
1.09 
1.16 

.35 


2.59 
2.88 
6.84 


.36 

.35 

11.42 


MONTHS. 


1875. 

17.18 

1.40 

2.14 

.22 

.59 

1.26 


1876. 


1877. 


1878. 

9.35 

12.96 
6.20 
1.94 

.20 
.60 


1879. 


1880. 


1881. 


January . 

February 

March 

April 

May 

June 

Julv 


7.43 

4.40 

6.46 

1.62 

.75 

.75 

.36 

.29 

39.80 


6.94 
.94 

2.68 
.46 

1.74 
.18 


5.34 
5.74 

8.07 

5.08 

2.45 

.29 


3.25 
3.93 
3 81 
15.85 
3.02 


10.89 
522 
2.49 
3.00 


August _ 
















34.77 




Total _ 


16.73 


35.29 


29.68 


42.17 


33.73 



Sacramento totals for same years : 23.64, 25.67, 
9.32, 21.24, 16.77, 18.51. 



* Sprinkle. 



242 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



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From these comparisons the average rain-fall 
appears to be nearly seventy-two per cent, greater 
at Sutter Creek than at Sacramento. Other places 
in Amador would show a still greater difference. It 
has been known to rain continuously for hours at 
Yogan's (Mountain Spring House) when no rain fell 
;il Bucna Yista, six miles below. During the Spring 
of 18G4, when rain was so anxiously looked for» 
showers were frequent on the Mokelumne river when 
no rain fell a half mile away. The cooler tempera- 
ture at the above places is supposed to have caused 
the clouds to part with their moisture. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 
ARROYO SECO GRANT. 

Claim .Rejected — Claim Confirmed on Appeal — Character of 
Grant — Matters of Record — Letter from T. A. Hendricks, 
Attorney General — Final Survey — During Hancock Agency- 
Proposed Settlement — Sale to J. Mora Mos3 & Co. — Memo- 
rial to President Lincoln — Dispossession — Settlers' League — 
Shooting of Herman Wohler — Last Effort — Memorial to 
Congress. 

The policy of making homes for the people of easy 
attainment has been so long established in the United 
States tbat few living have any recollections to the 
contrary. In New York the Patroon estates, and in 
Louisiana the Spanish grants, had hung like a pall 
over the inbabitants, but the majority of the people 
knew nothing of the relics of feudalism, which made 
one man the owner of the rents at least, of thousands 
of acre3. When the great immigration poured into 
California in 1849-50, they found the valleys and 
plains around the bay and larger rivers in the pos- 
session of a few men. General Sutter at New Helvetia, 
Charles Weber at Stockton, were near the mines 
first discovered, and first gave an idea of the scope 
of the princely estates, which afterwards, in the 
hands of professional land-grabbers, whose infernal 
resources seemed unfathomable, became such a source 
of oppression and robbery. The confusion in the 
early records of the California government; the loose 
manner in which the records were kept in the national 
archives in the city of Mexico; the difficulty of gain- 
ing access to them on account of the distance, all 
conspired to render the grant system a fruitful field 
for the operations of rascals. Grants were manufac- 
tured by the hundred after the treaty of peace with 
Mexico. In some instances the paper itself on which 
the grants were written, bore water-marks of a date 
subsequent to the treaty; these were of course re- 
jected. Others as fraudulent, but more cautiously 
manipulated, were made to fit the lands made valua- 
ble by settlement. The uncertainty of titles to the 
agricultural lands around the bay were, to the earlier 
settler of Amador county, far away matters. 

The first glimpse of the impending calamity came 
in 1853. Dr. E. B. Harris and H. A. Carter of lone 
were visiting the Legislature then in session at 
Benicia, to further the project of the organization of 
the new county of Amador. There they casually 



ARROYO SECO GRANT. 



243 



learned of a claim recently filed in the General Land 
Office with "Ione" marked in the center of a plot of 
the claim. The reader will remember that "lone " 
was a name given to the valley almost by inspira- 
tion. Who had any business with that name? A 
visit to the Land Office was next in order. There 
was the title 

EL ARROYO SECO, 

Situado asi a los Cordilleras la Sierra Nevada tene 
endo for limites at Norte el vio de los Cosumnes al 
sur el do Moquelemes at aiccenle, el camino del Sac- 
ramento Y. al Este Las Sierras. 

[Filed with Secretary of Land Comission, Novem- 
ber 1, 1852.] 

This purported to be a tract of land granted to 
Teodocio Yerba May 8, 1840, containing eleven 
leagues of land. Sierra Nevada mountains! Cosumnes 
river! Moqueleme river! Sacramento road! Which 
were the Sierras ? Where was the Sacramento road? 
It may well be supposed that our friends had no heart 
for lobbying a bill through the Legislatm-e for the di- 
vision of the county of Calaveras. They returned home 
and called a public meeting, to announce the coming- 
disaster. Charles Walker was made chairman. Judge 
Carter explained the situation. Some were for treat- 
ing the claim with contempt. The uncertainty of 
the boundaries, the enormous area included in the 
description, were conclusive evidence of fraud. 
Others reasoned differently. If the grant had been 
fraudulent it would have been more carefully worded. 
Its uncertainty, the awkwardness of description, . 
such as one might make who never had seen the 
country, or such as he might get from the Indians, 
was in favor of its realty. There was the Shaddon 
& Daylor ranch, the Pico ranch, and the Weber, only 
a little ways off. 

A society or league was formed to contest the 
grant. It does not appear that any forcible or illegal 
means were thought of. Money was raised and legal 
talent engaged. A. C. Brown and H. A. Carter were 
employed to engage a competent man to watch the 
affair. O. P. Sutton, a clerk in the Land Office was 
first employed, Thorntorn & Williams, two eminent 
land lawyers, being afterwards associated with him. 

CLAIM REJECTED. 

February 27, 1855, the claim was rejected, by the 
Commissioners appointed by the United States Gov- 
ernment to try the validity of the Mexican claims. 

On the 12th of May, notice of appeal from the 
decision of the Commissioners was filed in the 
United States District Court, followed by a petition 
for review on the 11th of June. On the 21st of 
Api-il, 1856, the decision of the Commissioners was 
reversed by Judge Hoffman. 

CLAIM CONFIRMED. 

By this decision, Andres Pico was entitled to eleven 
square leagues of land, somewhere in the boundaries 
set forth in his grant. On the 3d of October, 1856, 
an appeal to the United States Supreme Court was 



perfected, and the transcript sent up. It does not 
appear that the Court ever took the case into con- 
sideration. So far, in this matter, the people had a 
right to think the Government would watch their 
interests. The claims for land were against the Gov- 
ernment, not against the people; but we can hardly 
consider the Courts and their officers as acting for 
the people, but for the speculators. It is now, after 
the lapse of a quarter of a century, difficult to ascer- 
tain the true facts in the case. Whether Williams & 
Thornton did their duty during this stage of the 
affair; whether any attorney for the people made an 
appearance when the case was called in the United 
States Court, is not known; but, at any rate, on the 
4th of May, 1858, the case was, on motion of Attor- 
ney-General Black, dismissed, and the order for dis- 
missal of suit filed in San Francisco. 

CHARACTER OP THE GRANT. 

As the claim to the land is now confirmed, a little 
knowledge as to the character of the men concerned 
may not be out of place. Yorba, or Yerba, for it 
seems that he could not write his name, and proba- 
bly did not know how to spell it, was connected by 
marriage with some of the higher families. Juan B. 
Alvarado was an intriguer, first a Secretary in the 
department of Customs; then a revolutionist, who 
by means of an arrangement with Isaac Graham, a 
Tennesseean, wriggled himself into the position of 
Governor. It is said of him that he gave to all his 
followers whatever land they asked for. The date of 
the grant is May 8, 1840. Sutter did not settle at 
New Helvetia until the latter part of 1839. His 
grant was not completed until 1841; Weber's not 
until 1843. 

In the Autumn of 1841, the Mokelkos, a tribe of 
Indians living on the Mokelumne, below Lockeford, 
stole some cattle from Sutter. He organized an expe- 
dition and attacked them, marching thirty miles in 
the night. This march would carry him across the 
Cosumnes, and in sight of the Jim Martin and Lyon 
range of hills, which are probably described in the 
grant as the " neighboring Sierras." But he did not 
obtain his grant from Alvarado until June, 1841. 
Pio Pico's grant covered the lower portion of the 
Mokelumne river. Charles Weber did not get his 
grant until some years after he had resided with 
Sutter, and not until after the termination of Sut- 
ter's war with the Mokelkos, and a treaty of peace 
with them. He obtained permission to settle on the 
slough at Stockton from the chief, by agreeing to 
defend them against the Mexicans, the mortal enemies 
of the Mokelkos. In the subsequent revolutions, 
while Alvarado was striving to mantain his position 
as Governor, it is said that Sutter assisted him mate- 
rially with men, in return for which he not only 
gave Sutter a large tract of land, but granted to 
other persons, such as Sutter should recommend, in 
his capacity as Justice, other tracts. If the date of 
this had been but a year and a month later, it might 
have been genuine, but reason is against such a con- 



II 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



elusion. It is absurd to suppose thai the outside 
grant should have preceded the larger ones by a 
period of one to three years. 

ferba'sgranl was made Ma\ 8, L840, by Juan B. 
Aivarado; Sutter's grant, June, 1841, by same per 
Bon; Guiilermo Gulnac's for Weber, July L3, 1843, by 
Manuel Mioheltorena. 

.The Eludson's Bay Fur Company had ;i trading- 
post ai French Camp (hence the name), south of 
Stockton, for many years, and left about the time 
thai Weber obtained his grant, which induced him 
to locate temporarily on the Cosumnes, until he got 
on better terms with the Mokelkos. 

Andres Pico, who bought of Yerba, was brother of 
the last Governor, Pio Pico, and is said to have been 
addicted to drink and gambling. De Zaldo was in 
1850-51 a clerk in the Land Office. It seems more 
probable that the whole matter was cooked up in the 
Land Office after the discovery of gold, than that the 
grant should have preceded such settlements as Sut- 
ter's and Weber's. The fact that at the time of 
making the grant no Mexican dared show his head 
east of the San Joaquin or Sacramento rivers, serves 
to confirm the former hypothesis. Governor Downev, 
who is believed to have a good knowledge of the 
nature of Spanish claims, denounced the Arroyo Seco 
as a rank fraud. 

For the purpose of keeping our history clear, it 
may be best to have a list of titles passed: — 
Grant to Teodosio Yerba, May 8, 1840. 
Sale to Andres Pico, October 4, 1852. Consider- 
ation five hundred head of cattle. 
[copy of deed.] 
Know all men by these presents, That we, Teodocio 
Yerba and Maria Antonio Lugo his wife, for and in 
consideration of the sum of five hundred head of 
cattle, paid and delivered to us by Andres Pico, the 
receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, have sold, 
bargained and transferred and by these presents sell, 
bargain and transfer to the said Andres Pico and his 
heirs and assigns, all that tract of land situate and 
lying in the county of Sacramento, bounded and 
described as follows : " Situado asi a las Cordil- 
leras la Sierra Nevada tene endo for limetes at Norte 
el vio de los Cosumnes al sur el do Moquelemes at 
aiccenle el camino del Sacramento Yal este Las 
Sierras immuratus," and known by the name of" El 
Arroyo Seco," and being the same tract of land 
granted to the said Teodocio Yerba, by Governor 
Juan B. Alvarado, 8th. May, 1840, and containing, 
more or less, eleven leagues, together with all the 
improvements thereon, the rights, easements, and 
privileges appertaining thereto, to have and to hold 
for the use and benefit of the said Andres Pico, his 
heirs and assigns forever. And we for ourselves our 
heirs and administrators, hereby covenant with the 
said Pico, his heirs and assigns, that we will warrant 
and defend the said premises hereby conveyed, 
against the claims and demands of any person or 
persons claiming by, through or from us. 

Witness our hands and seals this fourth day of 



October, 1852. 
(Signed) 



[seal.] 



his 

Teodocio X Yorba. 

mark. 

her 
Maria Antonio X Lugo, [seal.] 
mark. 



Filed September 22, 185(1, in Recorder's office, 
A mador County. 

Andres Pico to Ramon De Zaldo. April 4, 1855. 
2-11 Arroyo Seco. Consideration, $2,000. Filed in 
Amador County July 21, 1850. 

Pico & De Zaldo to Green & Vogan, June 13, 1856. 
317.09 acres (Q Banch) Consideration, $3,176.90. 

Same to Fixary & Sompayrac, July 23, 1856. 
Town lots in Jackson. Consideration, $600. Fix- 
ary Banch, 240 acres. Consideration, $1,500. 

Same to James Brown, December 2, 1856. 5,7C0 
acres. Consideration, $9,516. 

This was the famous sale of the mines, and in- 
eluded all of the quartz leads that were then known 
to be valuable, Spring Hill, Keystone, Herbertville, 
Amador, Union, Eureka, Badger, etc., also the town 
sites of Amador, Sutter and Jackson. 

Pico & De Zaldo to Bruce Husband, December, 
1856. Town lot in Jackson. Consideration, $1. 

Same to Isaac Silver, January 9, 1857. 

Same to Thomas Jones, January 13, 1857. 

Same to William Pitt, January 12, 1857. 

Same to Luther K. Hammer, February 9, 1857. 

Same to John Williams, February 24, 1857. 

Same to Geo. Durham, February 21, 1857. 

Same to A. Sheakley, February 21, 1857. 

The most of these were town lots in Jackson. 
Contracts for sale were also made in many places in 
the valley. In most instances the sales were made 
to influential persons upon favorable terms, the 
object being to detach them from the party of oppo- 
sition. This was particularly true of the sales to 
Green & Yogan, John Edwards, Charles Stone, and 
James P. Martin. 

Soon after the confirmation of the grant by the 
District Court, Pico employed Sherman Day to sur- 
vey and sectionize the ranch in accordance with the 
United States survey, making Mount Diablo a base 
and meridian point. The lines were run to include 
all the valuable farms and mines possible. Many 
thousand dollars were obtained for the mines. After 
all had been got from them that was possible, the 
claim to the mines was abandoned, new lines being 
run to include other farms. For some years it was 
a floating grant. The lines were run so as to include 
a greater area on Dry creek. An improvement 
in any direction was sure to bring the grant line 
around it. 

LOCATION OF THE TRACT. 

This was next in order. During the location of 
the claim, high up on the mountains, the United 
States had sectionized and sold some of the valley 
lands on Dry creek, Purkey being among the pur- 
chasers. When the miners had been bled, the claim 
was again projected west on the lands recently 
sold by the Government, again making the United 
States a party to the affair. 

For three or four years the people saw surveyor's 
lines run around their homes, Surveyor- General 
Mandeville being among those engaged. As he was 



ARROYO SEOO GRANT. 



245 



supposed to be acting in his official capacity, a re- 
monstrance against the crooked lines was forwarded 
to President Buchanan, but it seems that the article 
was not sufficiently explicit in describing the claim. 
Thomas A. Hendricks, Commissioner of the General 
Land Office, returned the following answer: — 
letter from thomas a. hendricks. 

General Land Office, 
August 18th, 1857.' 
Sir: There has been referred to this office a letter 
from you, dated 27th of June last, addressed to the 
President of the United States, complaining of a lo- 
cation of a private claim, under a Mexican grant 
called the " Arroyo Seco," so as to cover the settle- 
ments and improvements of yourself and others. The 
claim referred to is presumed to be that entered as 
No. 186, on the Docket of the Board of Land Com- 
missioners, rejected by Board of Land Commissioners 
November 22d, 1853, but afterwards confirmed by 
the United States District Court, and the appeal dis- 
missed in the United States Supreme Court, and 
therefore, stands finally confirmed. 

The survey of this claim has not been returned to 
this office, and we have, therefore, no means of judg- 
ing of the manner of its location. Though your let- 
ter presents a ease of hardship, and the policy of the 
Government favors the protection of the settlers on 
public lands, we regret that you furnish no such spe- 
cific information in the matter as would justify action 
by the Department. When, however, the final sur- 
vey of the claim shall be returned, it will be carefully 
examined, particularly in respect to the "zigzag 
form" of its location, as represented by you. 
Very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

Thomas A. Hendricks, 
H. A. Carter, Esq., Commissioner. 

lone Valley P. O., 

California. 

The Arroyo Seco was filed November 1, 1852, and 
was numbered 441; was rejected February 27, 1855, 
so that the claim referred to by Commissioner Hen- 
dricks could not have been the Arroyo Seco. Upon 
farther inquiry it proved that Mandeville had been 
employed and paid by the grant party while ostensi- 
bly acting in an official capacity. 

October 17, 1858, Mandeville wrote to the set- 
tlers that he should not make a final survey until 
after he returned from Washington, to which place 
he was then going. He assured them that all should 
be heard. 

THE FINAL SURVEY 

Was made in August, 1859. At the hearing of this, 
before Judge McAllister, a great many witnesses 
were examined as to the character of the country. 
The lagoon west of lone, on Buckej^e creek, accord- 
ing to some, was the valley intended to be covered 
by the grant. It was urged, with much reason, that 
the mountains between that lagoon and lone valley 
were the "Sierras immuratus;" others ridiculed the 
idea of calling the hills of the tertiary formation a 
part of the mountains. Judge McAllister decided, 
April 26, I860, that the grant of land was west of 
the Lyons and Martin Mountains. This, for a time, 
seemed to have removed the load of misery from the 



residents of lone valley; from this time to December 
10th was the golden opportunity, as we shall here- 
after see. The survey was confirmed by Judge Hoff- 
man, September, 1862. It is said that Hoffman ex- 
amined the ground personally. This survey, and 
the new ownership which had occurred, fairly real- 
ized the worst fears of the settlers. In order to make 
a connected history, it will be necessary to retrace 
our steps and consider the condition of affairs. 

during Hancock's agency. 
For the purpose of acting as a partner and giving 
more authority to his deeds, Henry Hancock bought 
of Andres Pico one-fifth of the grant for sixty thou- 
sand dollars, deed dated April 20, 1859, and re- 
deeded it for the same consideration the same day. 
The first deed was filed April 28, 1859, the second, 
June 9, 1860. Andres Pico also sold to De Zaldo a 
further interest of two leagues, for five thousand 
dollars. De Zaldo sold his entire interest in the 
grant to Pio Pico, commonly called Governor Pico, 
brother to Andres, December 10, 1861, for four thou- 
sand dollars. As at this time the principal contest 
was on the location of the grant; many efforts being 
made to compromise the matter, and end the con- 
test. January 7th, Pico had written to the settlers 
assuring them of his good will, and asked them to 
consult with each other, so as to come to some 
amicable understanding. In May, Hancock com- 
menced acting as agent for Pico and De Zaldo. May 
27th, he wrote that a further contest would only waste 
their mutual substance, which would go to enrich 
strangers. A report becoming current tha't, in case 
the survey was confirmed, those who had been most 
active in opposing the grant, would have to pay a 
high price, Pico assured them that all should have 
their land at the same rate. During the time while 
the confirmation of the survey was pending in the 
United States Supreme Court for the Northern Dis- 
trict of California, a number of the settlers, H. A. 
Carter, W. H. Harron, W. K. Johnston, assisted by 
O. P. Sutton, of their counsel, acting for the settlers, 
entered into an agreement with Pico to the follow- 
ing effect: — 

agreement. 

Pico should sell the land at the following rates: — 

First class bottom-land in lone valley, per acre $ 10 00 

" " " " Jackson valley, per acre 9 00 

" " red land, per acre 4 00 

Second class red land, per acre 2 00 

For town site of lone, excepting such as had been here- 
tofore sold or contracted 5,000 00 

One-fourth at the time of completing the sale, and 

the balance to be paid within ninety days after 

a United States patent or its equivalent should be 

recorded at the county seat, without interest until 

the ninety days had expired. All indebtedness to 

be secured by mortgage. Pico to extinguish all liens 

and taxes outstanding on the land, so as to give the 

settlers a clear title. The settlers were to withdraw 

all opposition to the confirmation of the survey now 

pending in the Supreme Court of the United States 



246 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



for the Northern District of California. In cast', of 

disagreement as t<> the class of (he lands in question, 
each pariy interested was to name one person, and 
these two a third, if accessary to effect a classifica- 
tion. 

This was about one-fourth of the price at which the 
lands wen' valued, yet very few seemed to be willing 
to accept the terms, tf the land was theirs, they 
wanted it without paying a, greaser for it. Ten dol- 
lars an acre for a person who had already taxed 
himself twice that, to oppose the grant, was no easy 
matter to raise. It was hard to bring the men to 
concert of action. The moderate terms which Pico 
offered were considered as indicating a consciousness 
of a weak case, and so the matter remained unde- 
cided. 

SALE TO J. MORA MOSS & CO. 

Pico, as well as the settlers, had become exhausted 
with the long effort. Twenty-three hundred head 
of cattle had been driven into market and sold, to 
maintain the suit, and a mortgage for thirty-five 
thousand dollars was resting on the grant, as an 
evidence of further expenditure. Tired of the profit- 
less contest, and, perhaps, disgusted with the dilatory 
action of the people, he sold on the 10th day of 
December, 1861, to J. Mora Moss, H. W. Carpentier. 
E. F. Beales, Herman Wohler, and others. This 
firm was composed of men who had become noto- 
rious in connection with land grants. They had 
even then acquired the reputation of hesitating at 
nothing which would forward their suits. 

Bribery and perjury were openly talked of. The 
suits, or contests, whatever they may be called, still 
at this date, 1881, overshadow whole communities 
and paralyze the industries of cities and towns. 
Look at the cases of the Sobrante ranch, and the 
water front of Oakland. When the news of the 
sale came, and afterwards the confirmation of the 
survey by Judge Hoffman, September, 1862, 
"Hope for a season bade the world farewell." 

No astonishment was felt when, in 1863, Attorney- 
General Bates dismissed the appeal to the Supreme 
Court of the United States, and swept away the 
last ground for hope. If the Central Pacific Rail- 
road Company can make the Sierras reach within 
five miles of Sacramento, perhaps Mora Moss & Co. 
may drive them back as far. 

As a last resort, a memorial in a few words was 
addressed to President Lincoln and Attorney-Gen- 
eral Bates, asking that the case might be again put 
on the calendar for a hearing. The paper was signed 
by several hundred persons, nearly all the residents 
of the county. 

To Hon. Abraham Lincoln, President of the United 
States, and Hon. S. M. Bates, Attorney-General:— 
We, the undersigned citizens of the United States 
h aving faded everywhere, and under all circumstances' 
in our efforts to obtain justice in a matter of the 
deepest moment to ourselves and families, now as a 
last resort, appeal to you. Failing in this, we will 



endeavor to reconcile ourselves to our hard fate, and 
at once quit our humble homes, and make room for 
those who, by means of their greater wealth, have 
been able to tire us out and obtain our little farms 
and poor homes, which have cost us long years of 
toil and privation. 

Here are the facts and circumstances of our case, 
as briefly as it is possible to put them upon paper : — 

Most of your petitioners emigrated to California at 
an early day, bringing with us our families and all 
we possessed, intending in the far-off land to make 
homes for ourselves and our children. 

We located where we now reside, in Amador county, 
and upon lands then claimed by none but Indians, 
and as we honestly believed, owned by the general 
government. 

Here at the foot of the mountains, under the laws 
of the State of California, we took up for ourselves 
homes in small parcels, varying from fifty to one 
hundred and sixty acres each. Being upon mineral 
land we have enjoyed our possessions uninterruptedly, 
save when the miners saw fit to prospect and mine 
within our enclosures. 

Upon these lands we have planted trees,, built 
fences, and erected houses. In our midst churches 
and school-houses have sprung up. 

Years after our location, and when the eastern 
border of the tract was found valuable because of its 
mineral deposits, and when the whole face of our 
section had become a community of happy families, 
the rumor reached us that a Spanish grant covered 
our homes. 

We consulted and employed lawyers; we have ex- 
hausted ourselves and been beaten. Now we think 
we are wrongfully defeated, and appeal to you for 
interposition in our behalf, so far as is consistent and 
proper. 

The private claim which overwhelms us like a pall, 
and of which we complain, is the "Arroyo Seco 
Grant." 

This claim was defeated before the Board of Land 
Commissioners. 

The decree of the Board was reversed by the 
United States District Court. 

The decision of the District Court was appealed 
from by the Government under the administration 
of Attorney-General Black. 

The appeal was dismissed without a hearing. 

Then came the location of the grant. Surveyor- 
General Mandeville located the grant, extending the 
eastern boundary into the foot-hills of the Sierra 
Nevada, to a point (improperly as we insist) which 
embraces our homes within the location. 

The Government was heard in a review of Man- 

deville's proceedings before the Hon. McAllister, 

who, after deliberating upon the case, modified or 
changed the location made by Mandeville, and 
thereby relieved us from the scourge. 

About this time the grant changed hands, passing 
from Andres Pico to the present proprietors, con- 
sisting of the following gentlemen : J". Mora Moss, 
H. W. Carpentier, Surveyor-General Beale, and Her- 
man Wohler. 

This party, men of great wealth, procured a re- 
hearing of the case before the Hon. Ogden Hoffman, 
District Judge of the United States District Court. 

Judge Hoffman upset the decree of Judge McAllis- 
ter, and confirmed the location made by General 
Mandeville. 

An appeal was taken by the Government to the 
United States Supreme Court. 

We are just now informed that the appeal has been 



ARROYO SECO GRANT. 



247 



dismissed, and we are therefore deprived of a fair 
hearing before the Tribunal of last resort, whither 
we supposed we were advancing according to the 
rules and practices of the Courts of our country, and 
from which Tribunal we were fondly hoping to re- 
ceive the relief from litigation and oppression from 
which we have suffered so long. 

Now all we ask from you, gentlemen, is that the 
case may be reinstated upon the calendar, treated as 
a new case, and passed upon by the Court. The de- 
cision of that high Tribunal, though adverse to us, 
will be cheerfully acquiesced in. 

FIRST ATTEMPTS AT DISPOSSESSION. 

Soon after the dismissal of the appeal a United 
States patent was obtained, and an attempt was made 
to dispossess the settlers. It was wisely resolved 
not to bring the people of the county into collision 
with their own officers, and a man by the name of 
Benjamin Beilock, said to be a Peruvian citizen, was 
put forward, so as to throw the case into the hands 
of a United States Marshal, though Bellock's inter- 
est must have been very remote, as his name does 
not appear on record as an owner of any part of the 
grant. The Marshal put in an appearance one day, 
and was in the act of evicting Thomas Rickey when 
quite a number of men (the Marshal estimated 
them at fifty), armed with rifles and pistols, went 
along to see how the thing was to be done. It is 
said that Turner, one of the settlers, used some 
threatening language, but no violence was used. 
The appearance of opposition was expected, and, 
perhaps, desired. The Marshal went back to San 
Francisco. 

settlers' league. 

This has been referred to before. Its organization 
was a secret one, and the proceedings were never 
published. Public notices were printed in an odd 
kind of type, and were signed with a numeral as 
Secretary. It was supposed that the members num- 
bered three hundred or more. It was not known, 
of course, what measures were contemplated. Resist- 
ance to dispossession was openly talked of. It was 
thought that the grant company would have to pay 
the expense of keeping the soldiers in the field. 
Others said that we should be compelled to yield; 
that successful resistance to one company of soldiers 
would only bring a regiment, to oppose which would 
bean insurrection, another rebellion; but that we 
might murder the proprietors, and annoy those who 
should undertake the cultivation of the land, so as 
to make it worthless. The feeling was very bitter, 
and a little indiscretion might have brought on 
bloodshed. 

the soldiers have come. 

On the eleventh of February the sullen boom of the 
cannon, heard for miles around, announced the arrival 
of the soldiers. Why the cannon was fired does not 
appear, but every one knew the meaning. There 
was no gathering, no appearance of resistance. 
What might have happened if a smaller number had 
commenced the dispossession, can only be imagined. 



The seventy-five might — could have been beaten, 
but these were the " boys in blue," who had been 
battling so bravely for the Union, who had borne 
the flag aloft mid shot and shell in many a bloody 
field, who had saved our country. It is quite likely 
that grief as well as anger pervaded the league, and 
no resistance was offered. The people were deter- 
mined to lose no point by vacating voluntarily, but 
quietly suffered their goods, household utensils, their 
wives and children, to be removed into the streets, 
in the storm, even, for the eviction took place in Feb- 
ruary, the month of rains. Some formed camps, 
others went to the houses of friends, and some went 
back to the houses from which they had been 
ejected. The fastenings were slight, and perhaps 
it was expected that they would return, though as 
tresspassers. A man by the name of Clark, venera- 
ble, respectable and prudent, was made custodian 
and superintendent of the property. So far, the dis- 
possession of the settlers had gone on without 
violence. The dispatches sent to the principals were 
congratulatory. 

SHOOTING OF HERMAN WOHLER. 

Wohler was perhaps the smallest owner in the 
grant, and, likely, the smallest capitalist in the com- 
pany, and was probably put forward to manage the 
eviction on account of having no moral weakness or 
humane feelings which should prevent him turning a 
multitude of men, women and children out of their 
homes. If he had feelings to gratify, if he wished 
to avenge the long and persistent fight the settlers 
had made for their homes, his opportunity was ample. 
His pitiless face was seen everywhere directing the 
soldiers in their work — the only one in the whole 
crowd who did not show disgust with the business. 
Every man who had been driven out marked his 
overbearing and unfeeling demeanor. The dispos- 
session was complete. The Arroyo Seco steal was a 
fixed fact. Any settler now who wished to have his 
rights would have to wade through an awful quag- 
mire of law and technicalities. A big dinner was 
given, to celebrate the successful termination of the 
matter, which was attended by some of the county 
officers, among whom was the District Attorney, 
Briggs. Hare, stewed in wine, was said to be one of 
the extraordinary dishes set at this entertainment. 
The celebration was generally known, and was con- 
sidered, in view of the distress of the people, heart- 
less, and even insulting. It passed off, however, 
without disturbance, the guests leaving about ten 
o'clock p. m. Wohler was about retiring, and went 
to raise the window, to let out some of the cigar 
smoke which filled the room. While he stood for a 
moment looking into the darkness, the report of a 
rifle, in the direction of the blacksmith shop, was 
heard; he felt the sting of a ball in his chest and fell 
back seriously wounded. It was supposed to be 
mortal, but he so far recovered, in a few days, as to 
be removed to San Francisco. 



HIS 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



The news thai a man bad been Bhol in Lone on 
accounl of land matters, soon found its waj overthe 
State, and throughout the Bast. The settlors were 
now jiiii on tin' defense. Those who were unac- 
quainted with the previous facts denounced it as an 
atrocious act. Those who knew something of the 
circumstances, which have been related in this his- 
tory, will find some reasons for a mild sentence. "To 
forgive is divine." they say. Forgiveness may he an 
attribute of divinity, but, though the lone Valley 
people are, perhaps, as moral and as well-behaved as 
any community in the State, they have never made 
any pretensions to a divine nature. Let no one pass 
judgment on the act until he has first put himself in 
the place of a settler, ejected, with his wife and chil- 
dren, from a home which he has wrested from a 
desert. 

Wohler recovered from this wound, and died about 
two years since in Sonoma county. The agent, 
Clark, put in possession of the property was prudent 
and obliging, as far as his position would permit, 
renting the land to the former owners at a nominal 
figure. In a few years the ill-feeling seemed to abate, 
the new owners were permitted to occupy the lands 
in security, and peace and industry once more re- 
sumed their sway. 

THE LAST EFFORT 

To get justice was made at the session of the Legis- 
lature in 1865-66. Through the instrumentality, prin- 
cipally, of A. H. Rose, State Senator from Amador 
county, Congress was memorialized on the subject. 
On hearing it read, many members of Congress 
denounced the system of grants as a store-house of 
fraud, but nothing beneficial to the settlers ever came 
of it. 

The memorial will conclude this chapter on the 
"Arroyo Seco Grant." 

MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS. 
The Memorial of the Legislature of the State of Cali- 
fornia to the Congress of the United States respect- 
futty represents — 
That at the time California was acquired by the 
United States, a tract of arable land, containing 
some fifty thousand acres, well watered and exceed- 
ingly fertile, had remained, from its secluded position 
and its distance from the sea-coast, if not undiscov- 
ered, entirely unoccupied by civilized man. The 
tract lies near to the Sierras, and issurrounded by low 
hills, and beyond them sterile plains, and it is quite 
probable that up to the time when gold was discov- 
ered it had never been visited by white man; 
it is entirely certain that no vestige of civiliza- 
tion was ever found on it. In 1848, when General 
Sutter prospected for gold two miles above in 
the foot-hills, the principal stream which irri- 
gates and fertilizes this valley had not even a name 
to designate it. It has been known from that 
time as Sutter creek. The same is true of its 
second principal stream, named for an early miner, 
Jackson. Another, still, from a miner, Amador; and, 
curiously enough, the grant, which will be hereafter 
mentioned, takes its name from a stream christened 
by the Mexican miners, after eighteen hundred and 
forty-eight, Arroyo Seco, or Dry creek, and the vil- 



lage in which they lived is still known as Dry town. 
The valuable belt of mineral lands embracing the 
villages of Drytown, Amador, Sutter Creek and 
Jackson, lies ten miles to the above and to the east 
of this valley, and was prospected by Amador, Sutter, 
Jackson, and others, in the fall and winter of 1848-49, 
and at that time the valley was entirely unoccupied. 

In 1849 it attracted the attention of enterprising 
men, who found it as nature had left it, unoccupied 
and unclaimed. They believed, and were justified by 
all appearances in this belief, that this was public 
land, belonging to the United Slates. . They were 
principally Western men, who had from their youth 
been familiar with the beneficent system of land 
laws in the new and unoccupied Territories of the 
Union, and they settled at once in the beautiful val- 
ley, each making out, as near as he could, his hundred 
and sixty acres, and felt as certain of his right to 
do so, and as secure of his possession, as any heir 
could be to his ancient inheritance. Tbey knew the 
country had been ceded to the United States; they 
knew the lands were public lands, for there was 
neither occupant nor claimant — not a vestige of a 
house, not a hoof of stock, nor a settlement nearer 
them than Sutters Fort, forty miles distant. These 
lands were exceedingly fertile, and convenient to the 
best market for farm produce in the world, the 
mines of California. As soon as the capacity of 
these lands to produce both grains and fruits had 
been tested by these hardy pioneers, they became at 
once exceedingly valuable. Improvements were com- 
menced of the most permanent character; orchards 
and vineyards were planted; beautiful and expen- 
sive dwellings were erected ; steam-power was 
introduced; large mills for converting their grain 
into flour were built; hotels, stores, and villages 
sprang up from the plain as if by magic; extensive 
ditches and costly aqueducts, both for the purpose of 
irrigation and working the mines upon the borders 
of the valley, were constructed, while churches and 
school-houses told plainer than words could convey, 
who were the settlers of lone valley " and this waste 
land, where no man came or had come since the 
making of the world," blossomed as only California 
valleys can under the hand of experienced culti- 
vation. 

This picture is not overdrawn, and but feebly con- 
veys an idea of the prosperity, progress, and refine- 
ment of the settlers in this valley, for the first ten 
years of their California life. The value of the im- 
provements which they had placed upon the lands 
could not have been less than eight hundred thousand 
dollars. From that date words will fail to depict the 
calamities of these most unfortunate families. Their 
lands and improvements have been taken from them 
without any compensation whatever. A Mexican 
grant to the whole of the valley has been confirmed. 
The land has peen patented to strangers by the 
United States, and pioneers, the early settlers, the 
men who bore the heat and burden of the day, have 
been stripped of their all, and many. of them in the 
decline of life turned literally out of doors. 

All right-thinking men naturally ask, " Is there 
any redress for this calamitj 7 ? Can any compensa- 
tion be made these families for their great loss?" In 
plain words, ought the general government to 
stretch forth its powerful arms for tbe relief of this 
distressed community ? If it can be shown that they 
settled these lands under encouragement from the 
United States, all questions will be at an end. That 
many of them did so is a fact recorded in the archives 
of the government. 




^/7%2<^^^ 



TOM^SO* 4 uvfST fU0, OAKLAND CAtt- 



ARROYO SECO GRANT. 



249 



To establish the right of this community to relief 
from the general government, it will be necessary to 
give a brief history of the Arroyo Seco Grant, upon 
which a patent to their lands has been issued. 

It appears from the records that in the year 1852, 
on the 1st of November, Andreas Pico filed a peti- 
tion before the Land Commissoners for eleven leagues 
of land, known as the Arroyo Seco Grant, and lying- 
in whole or in part, as the petition states, in Sacra- 
mento county, but giving only certain external 
boundaries, which embraced a scope of country con- 
taining at least six times the required amount of 
land; and at this time it must be borne in mind lone 
valley and the lands referred to in the memorial, lay 
not in Sacramento but in Calaveras county, which 
barely cornered on Sacramento. The question is now, 
not whether Pico had any valid grant, but did his 
claim for eleven leagues of land, lying in whole or in 
part in Sacramento county, impart any notice whatever 
to the settlers of Calaveras county ? If they ever 
heard that such a petition had been filed before the 
Land Commissioners in San Francisco, they certainly 
never once thought it referred to their valley, for the 
boundaries claimed by Pico, as well as the county, 
seemed clearly to exclude them. Pico's eastern 
boundaiy came only to the foot-hills, which rise, sharply 
defined, to the west of lone. It is confidently asserted 
that this claim was never at that time heard of in 
the valley; if it ever was, the next news heard from 
it was that it had been rejected by the Land Commis- 
sion on the twenty-seventh day of February, 1855. 
Six years had now passed in undisturbed possession, 
with no adverse claims to the lands on which they 
resided; for Pico stated in his petition to the Land 
Commissioners, that there were no adverse claimants 
to the lands which he desired, and as there was at 
least fifty leagues of land vacant and unoccupied 
within the external boundaries which his petition set 
forth, it neither imparted notice nor gave a hint of 
danger to these bona fide and actual settlers. Pico 
said: "Somewhere in that space of country bounded 
on the north by the Cosumnes river, on the east by 
the foot-hills, on the south by the Mokelumne river, 
and on the west by the old Sacramento and Stockton 
trail, I claim eleven leagues of land, and the land I 
desire is vacant, unoccupied land — there is no other 
to claim it." And his claim could have been satisfied 
four times over and never have touched them. Ought 
they, as the most scrupulously prudent men, to have 
thought the shaft was aimed at their peace? They 
did not think it was, and they continued to build, 
and improve, and enter into the fruit of their labors. 
They had the most unbounded confidence that the 
general government would now, as she always had, 
protect her hardy pioneers. 

On the 12th of May, 1855, notice of appeal from 
the Land Commission was filed, followed on the 
11th of June by a petition for review; and on the 
21st of April, 1856, the Court reversed the action 
of the Land Commission, and confirmed to Andreas 
Pico eleven leagues of land, somewhere within his 
said external boundaries. No survey had yet been 
made; the grant had been confirmed, but not located. 
And it must be steadily borne in mind that there 
was abundance of land to satisfy the grant, and 
leave the settlers alone. Would not the United 
States undoubtedly see that this was done? Before 
proceeding, however, to the history of the surveys, 
we will complete the legal history of this calamitous 
grant. On the third of October, 1856, an appeal 
to the United States Supreme Court was perfected, 
and the transcript sent up, and, without ever com- 
32 



ing to a hearing, was, May 4, 1858, on motion of 
Attorney-General Black, dismissed, and the mandate 
of dismissal filed in San Francisco on the 3d of Sep- 
tember, of the same year. This, of course, ended 
the litigation. It must steadily be borne in mind 
that the United States, during afl this time, was the 
party in interest, and, by her highest officers, man- 
aged this important suit, involving, it is true, only 
the price of the land, some sixty thousand dollars; 
to her citizens — her children — the increased value 
of improvements and cultivation, amounting to 
nearly or quite a million. We have now reached 
the Autumn of 1858, ten years subsequent to the 
discovery of gold, and nine since the valley was first 
settled. Many of the farms were worth a hundred 
dollars an acre, and, in the character and value of 
their improvements, would not suffer by comparison 
with the most highly cultivated sections of the older 
States. 

The United States had surveyed and laid off into 
townships and sections nearly the whole of the 
valley, and have actually sold, as the records of the 
Land Office at Stockton show, four thousand nine 
hundred and ninety-six and forty-nine one hundredths 
acres; the balance had been all, or nearly all, pre- 
empted. We now ask, in all candor and kindness, 
if the United States could have so located these 
eleven leagues of land belonging to Pico, so as not 
to disturb these settlers, and did not do it, ought 
she not to reimburse them for their losses? To 
determine this question, so vital to their hopes, let 
us proceed with the history of the surveys. 

Sometime during the Summer of 1856, Andreas 
Pico himself came with surveyors into the district, 
and proceeded to select and mark out his eleven 
leagues. It would seem that if any person knew 
where the land was he, the grantee, was most likely 
to possess this information. He located his eastern 
boundary ten miles further east than the line of the 
present survey, and included within his boundaries 
all the rich belt of mineral lands hei*etofore spoken 
of, and with the invaluable mines, assumed owner- 
ship of the thriving villages of Amador, Sutter 
Creek, and Jackson, the county seat of the new 
county, which, in 1854, had been carved from Cala- 
veras. He established his boundaries by permanent 
monuments, and j)roceeded to sell and deed lands, as 
the records of Amador county will show, to numer- 
ous purchasers, across all this range. The wealth- 
iest and most intelligent quartz miners in this State 
bought his title. 

It will be remembered that this survey of 1856 left 
out a large number of those persons who are now 
included in the present survey, and these facts are 
stated to render the position impregnable that these 
settlers believed, and were justified by the facts 
surrounding them in this belief, that they were 
upon the public lands of the United States. 

In the meantime to render this belief a certainty, 
the United States surveyed all the valley lands to 
the west of Pico's location, and sold them to these 
very men who now are memorializing Congress for 
relief. 

But time rolled on; the survey had not yet been 
confirmed; the mines were growing poorer and the 
valley richer, and Pico in his great anguish, when he 
discovered that he had not included within his Hues 
all the valuable property between the Cosumnes and 
Mokelumne rivers, and the old Stockton trail and the 
foot-hills, proceed at once to change the lines of the 
survey. 



•_'.-.(> 



BISTOKY <)K AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



In August, 1859, thai grant was surveyed by the 
United Stairs Surveyor-General for the State of 
California,.!. W. Mandeville, Esq. The eastern line 

Of Pico's first survey was carried ten miles west, and 

of necessity, inoluded many of the settlers who had 
purchased theso lands of the United States. It must 
constantly he borne in mind thai this was a floating 
grant] thai there was at least six times as much 
Land contained within its exterior lines as the grant 

called for; that all the lands outside of this valley 
were vacant lands, and that this survey was per- 
sistently and openly made to include the most val- 
uable farms, and was made; by a United States Sur- 
veyor-! ieneral, and confirmed by a United States 
District Judge. 

This survey was confirmed September, 18G2. An 
appeal was taken from the order of confirmation, 
and this appeal, on motion of Attorney-General 
Bates, was dismissed February 3, 1863. Not until this 
date were the settlers left without hope. 

Soon after this confirmation, a patent was issued, 
and a company of United States dragoons ordered 
into the valley to assist the United States Marshal 
in ejecting the settlers. Let us quickly draw a veil 
over this sad picture, and state at once the plan we 
propose for redress. 

We appeal to Congress, and respectfully pray that 
a commission of disinterested and qualified men be 
selected and authorized, at the expense of the gen- 
eral government, to visit the land in question; 
to inquire into and ascertain all the facts of the case; 
to take testimony in relation thereto, and to award 
to each settler such amount as may be deemed by 
said commission to bejust and right. And Congress 
is further requested to make such appropriation as 
will be necessary to cany out the objects of said 
commission. 

Such proceedings on the part of Congress your 
memorialists believe to be consonant with reason and 
justice, and to be sanctioned by precedent. 

His Excellency, the Governor, is requested to for- 
ward a copy of the above memorial to each of our 
delegation in Congress. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

FARNHAM'S HISTORY OF ALVARADO. 

Since writing the foregoing chapter, the writer 
found in an old history of California, a further 
account of Juan B. Alvarado, which may be intei'est- 
ing as throwing some light on the character of those 
persons who were, as is now believed, instrumental 
in the manufacture of the fraudulent " Arroyo Seco 
Grant." 

J. T. Farnham, a man who had been an extensive 
traveler, arrived in the Bay of Monterey on board 
the bark "Don Quixote in 1840, at the time that Alva- 
rado, acting as Governor of California, had im- 
prisoned all the foreign population on the charge of 
conspiring against the government. They were con- 
fined in narrow quarters and treated with the 
utmost inhumanity, and our author's statements, in 
consequence of his sympathy for the unfortunate 
prisoners, may have been colored more than facts 
warrant. His history of the affair places Alvarado 
in no enviable light. It may be found, commencing 



page sixty, " Early Days of California," by J. T. 
Farnham. 

In L836, a Mexican general by the name of 
Echuandria was the commandant general of L^pper 
California. Some years previous, as will be partic- 
ularly shown in another jjlaee, he had come up from 
Mexico with a band of fellow myrmidons, and, hav- 
ing received the submission of the country to the 
authorities of that Republic, commenced robbing the 
government for which he acted, and the several 
interests which he had been sent to protect. 
Nothing escaped his mercenary clutches. The peo- 
ple, the missions, and the revenue were robbed indis- 
criminately as opportunity offered. A few of the 
white population participated in these acts. But 
generally the Oalifornians were the sufferers, and, as 
is always the case with unhonored rogues, raised a 
perpetual storm of indignation about the dishonest 
deeds of those they desired to supplant for the pur- 
pose of enacting the same things. An occurrence of 
this kind was the cause of the revolution in 1836. 

A vessel had cast anchor in the harbor of Monte- 
rey. General Echuandria, not having that honor- 
able confidence in the integrity of the Custom House 
officers which thieves are accustomed to have in one 
another, placed a guard on board the craft to pre- 
vent them from receiving bribes for their own ' 
exclusive benefit. To this the officers demurred; 
and, in order to free their territory from the crea- 
tures of one whose conscience would compel him to 
receive bribes for his own pockets instead of theirs, 
they sent their own clerk, a }"Oung rascal of the coun- 
try by the name of Juan Baptiste Alvarado, to inform 
the general that it was improper to suggest, by put- 
ting a guard on board, that the officers of the ship 
which lay under the fort, either attempted or dared 
to attempt the payment of duties! 

The general, however, was too well acquainted 
with his inalienable rights to be wheedled out of 
them in this manner, and manifested his indignation 
towards the clerk for attempting to obtrude his 
plebeian presence on his golden dream, by ordering 
him to be put in irons. Alvarado, however, escaped. 

On page two hundred and eighty-six he again 
refers to this transaction in the following terms: — 

In the year 1836, a quarrel arose between the 
Mexican Governor at Monterey, and Custom House 
officer by the name of Juan Baptiste Alvarado, in 
regard to the division of certain bribes which had 
been paid to the officers by the supercargo of a 
foreign ship, as a remuneration for entering upon 
the Government books only half the cargo, and 
admitting the remainder for a certain sum in specie 
and goods, paid to themselves; and the first result 
of the difficulty was a revolutionary movement under 
Alvarado and Graham, as I have heretofore related. 

To continue the narrative in Parnham's own 
words: — 

He (Alvarado) fled into the country, rallied the 
farmers, who still loved the descendants of Philip 
the II. more than El Presidente, and formed a camp 
at the Mission of San Juan, thirty miles eastward 
from Monterey. 

Near this mission lived an old Tennesseean by the 
name of Graham; a stout, sturdy backwoodsman, 
of a stamp which existed only on the frontiers of 
the American States— men with the blood of the 
ancient Normans and Saxons in their veins — with 
hearts as large as their bodies can hold, beating 



FARNHAM'S HISTORY OF ALVARADO. 



251 



nothing but kindness till injustice showed its fangs, 
and then, lion like, striking for vengeance. This 
trait of natural character had been fostered in Gra- 
ham by the life he had led. Early trained to the 
use of the rifle, he had learned to regard it as his 
friend and protector; and when the season of man- 
hood had arrived, he threw it upon his shoulder and 
sought the wilderness, where he could enjoy its pro- 
tection, and be fed by its faithful aim. He became 
a beaver hunter — a cavalier of the wilderness — that 
noble specimen of brave men, who have muscles for 
riding wild horses and warring with wild beasts, a 
steady brain and foot for climbing the icy precipice, 
a strong breast for the mountain torrent, an unre- 
lenting trap for the beaver, a keen eye and deadly 
shot for a foe. A man, was this Graham, who stood 
boldly up before his kind, conscious of possessing 
physical and mental powers adequate to any emer- 
gency. He had a strong aversion to the elegant 
edifices, the furniture, wardrobe, and food of pol- 
ished life, coupled with a vivid love of mountain 
sublimity, the beautiful herbage on uncultivated dis- 
tricts, the wild animals, and the streams of water 
roaring down the frozen heights. Even the gray 
deserts, with the hunger and thirst incident to trav- 
eling over them, had wild and exciting charms for 
him. On these his giant frame had obstacles to 
contend with worthy of its powers. A projecting 
rock, against which blazed his camp-fire, a crackling 
pine-knot his light, a roasting sirloin of elk or a 
buffalo hump for a supper, and a sleep in his blankets 
on the green sward in the open air after a day's 
exciting hunt, were the objects sought with the 
keenest zest, and enjoyed with the greatest pleasure. 

He forced his way over the Rocky Mountains and 
located himself in Upper California. This country 
was suited to his tastes. Its climate allowed him to 
sleep in the open air most of the year; an abundance 
of native animals covered the hills, and nature was 
spread out luxuriantly in wild, untrodden freshness. 

As I have said, this brave man resided near the 
Mission of San Juan. He had there erected a rude 
dwelling and a distillery. On the neighboring plains 
he herded large bands of horses, mules and cattle. 
To this fine old fellow Alvarado made known his peril 
and designs ; whereupon the foreigners assembled 
at Graham's summons, elected him "their captain, an 
Englishman by the name of Coppinger lieutenant, 
and repaired to San Juan. A council of war was 
held between the clerk and the foreigners. The 
former promised that if by the aid of the latter he 
should successfully defend himself against the acting 
Governor, and obtain possession of the country, it 
should be declared independent of Mexico, and that 
the law which prevented foreigners from holding 
real estate should be abrogated. The foreigners 
agreed, on these conditions, to aid Alvarado to the 
utmost of their power. The next morning the united 
forces, fifty foreigners and twenty-five Oaliforni- 
ans, marched against Monterey. They entered the 
town in the afternoon of the same day, and took 
up their position in the woods, one hundred rods in 
the rear of the castello or fort. JSTo event of impor- 
tance occurred till the night came on, when the awe 
with which darkness sometimes inspires even the 
bravest minds, fell with overwhelming power on the 
valorous garrison, that, notwithstanding they were 
supported by the open mouths of the guns, the bark- 
ing of their dog, the roar of the surf, and the hooting 
of an owl on a neighboring tree-top, they were abso- 
lutely compelled to forsake the ramparts, for the 
more certain protection of unmolested flight. 



Graham and his men perceiving the discomfiture 
of their enemies, availed themselves of their absence 
by taking possession of the evacuated fort. Alva- 
rado, meantime, actuated, it is to be presumed, by a 
desire to save life, and philosophical conviction of 
the dangers incident to bullets rendered crazy by 
burning powder, restrained the fiery ardor of his 
twenty-five Californians, and held his own person 
beyond the reach of harm, in case some luckless 
horse or cow straying over hostile ground on that 
memorable night, should scare the fleeing garrison 
into an act of defense. The next morning he and 
his brave men were found peering from their hiding- 
places in a state of great anxiety and alarm! A battle 
had almost been begun in Monterey! The blood of 
their enemies had almost begun to fatten the soil of 
California! They themselves had nearly stepped in 
blood knee deep, among the carcasses of the hated 
Mexicans. The besom of destruction had shaken 
itself, and had barely missed commencing the havoc 
of bone and flesh, which would have crushed every 
mote of Mexican life within their borders! Thus they 
gloried among the bushes! 

Old Graham stood at sunrise on the earth embank- 
ments of the castello. A hunting shirt of buckskin, 
and pants of the same material, covered his giant 
frame; a slouched broad- brimmed hat hung around 
his head and half covered his quiet, determined face! 
In his right hand he held his rifle, the tried com- 
panion of many fearful strifes among the savages I 
Four or five of his men sat on a dismounted thirty- 
two pounder, querying whether they could repair its 
wood-work so as to bring it to bear on the presidio 
or Government House. Others stood by a bucket of 
water swabbing out their rifle barrels and drying the 
locks. Others of them were cooking beef; others 
whittling, swearing and chewing tobacco. 

About nine o'clock flags of truce began their oner- 
ous duties. Alvarado came from the woods and took 
part in the councils. The insurgents demanded the 
surrender of the government; whereat the cavaliers 
of the presidio considered themselves immeasurably 
insulted. Two days were passed in parleying, with- 
out advancing the interests of either party. They 
were days big with the fate of the future; and who 
could weary under the dreadful burthens ? Not 
such men as Alvarado. He bore himself like the 
man he was, through all this trying period. He 
uniformly preferred delay to fighting! He was sus- 
tained in this preference by his right-hand villain, 
Captain Jose Castro. Indeed it was the unanimous 
choice of the whole California division of the insur- 
gent forces, to wit., the twenty-five before men- 
tioned, to massacre time instead of men. For not a 
single one of them manifested impatience or insub- 
ordination under the delay — a fact which, perhaps, 
demonstrates the perfection of military discipline in 
California! The foreigners- seemed different from 
their illustrious allies. Graham thought " two days 
and nights awaiting on them bars was enough." 
Accordingly, taking the responsibility on himself, 
after the manner of his distinguished fellow states- 
man, he sent a flag to the presidio, with notice that 
two hours only would be given the Governor and his 
officers to surrender themselves prisoners of war. 
The demand of the old Tennesseean, however, was 
disregarded. The appointed time passed without a 
surrender. Forbearance was at an end. The lieu- 
tenant of Graham's rifle corps was ordered to level 
a four-pound brass piece at the presidio. A ball was 
sent through its tiled roof, immediately over the 
heads of the Mexican magnates. 



252 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



1 1 i- wonderful how small a portion of neci 
mingled with human affairs will quicken men's per- 
ception df duty. No Booner did the broken tiles 
rattle around the heads of these valiant warriors 
than they became suddenly convinced that it, would 
be exceedingly hazardous to continue their resist- 
ance against such an overwhelming force; and thai 
the central government at Mexico would not lie so 
unreasonable as to expect lour or five hundred 
troops to hold out against " Los RiAeros Americanos.'" 
This view of the case, taken through the shat- 
tered roof of the presidio was conclusive. They 
surrendered at discretion! Alvarado marched into 
the citadel of government! The Mexicans laid down 
their arms! The emblems of office were transferred 
to the Custom House clerk! When these things had 
transpired, General Echuandra was pleased to say 
with the most exalted good sense, " had we known 
we were thrice as many as you, we would not have 
surrendered so soon;" thereby demonstrating to the 
future historian of Alta California that he and his 
friends would either have fought the seventy-five 
with the five hundred, or protracted the siege of bra- 
vado much longer, had they been able to count the 
seventy-five at the distance of seventy-five yards, 
during the lapse of two days! Difficulties in the use 
of optics often occur in the Californian warfare 
which are not treated of in the books. 

The end of this revolution came. The schooner 
Clarion, of New Bedford, was purchased, and the 
Mexican officers shipped to San Bias. Juan Bap- 
tiste Alvarado, custom clerk, proclaimed El Alia 
California an independent republic, and himself its 
governor. But more of this on a subsequent page. 
It suffices my present purpose to have shown how 
far this Alvarado was indebted to the foreigners 
dying in his prisons for the station and power which 
he was using for their destruction. He could never 
have obtained possession of Monterey without them. 
And had they not slept on their arms for months 
after that event; a party in the south under his 
uncle, Don Carlos Carillo, or another in the north 
under his uncle, Guadalupe Viego (Yallejo), would 
have torn him from his ill-gotted elevation. 

Thus California became an independent State, and 
Alvarado its governor. The central government at 
Mexico was, of course, much shocked at such unpol- 
ished, ungloved impudence; threatened much, and 
at last, in September, 1837, induced Alvarado to buy 
a ship, send dispatches to Mexico, and become El 
Goubernador Constitutional del Alta California, asso- 
ciated with his uncle Viego, as commandante general. 
After this adhesion to the Mexican government, 
Alvarado became suspicious of the foreigners who 
had aided him in the " revolution," and sought every 
means of annoying them. They might depose him 
as they had done Echuandra. And if vengeance 
were always a certain consequent of injustice, he 
reasoned well. The vagabond had promised, in his 
day of need, to bestow lands on those who had 
saved his neck and raised him to power. This he 
found convenient to forget. Like Spaniards of all 
ages and all countries, after having been well served 
by his friends, he rewarded them with the most 
heartless ingratitude. 

Graham in particular was closely watched. A 
bold, open-handed man, never concealing for an 
instant either his love or hatred, but with the frank- 
ness and generosity of those great souls, rous;h hewn, 
but majestically honest, who belong to the valley 
States, he told the Governor his sins from time to 
time, and demanded, in the authoritative tone of an 



affectionate elder brol her, t hat lie redeem his pledges. 

lie asked for justice, and received 
what we shall presently see. 

Graham loved a horse. lie had taken a fine 
gelding with him when he emigrated to the country, 

and trained him for the turf. Every year he had 
challenged the whole country to the course, and as 
oil en won everything wagered against his noble 
steed. Jose Castro * * and his Excel- 

hntissirno were among Graham's heaviest debtors. 
Behold the reasons of their enmity. 

Another cause of the general feelings against the 
Americans and Britons in California was the fact 
that the senoritas, the dear ladies, in the plenitude 
of their taste and sympathy for foreigners, preferred 
them as husbands. Hence Jose Castro was heard to 
declare a little before the arrest of the Americans 
and Britons, that such indignities could not be borne 
by Castilian blood; "for a Californian cavaliero can- 
not woo a senorita if opposed in his suit by an Amer- 
ican sailor, and these heretics must be cleared from the 
land." Such were the causes operating to arouse 
the wrath andrq)en the patriotism of the Californians. 
The vengeance of baffled gallantry bit at the ear of 
Captain Jose Castro; the fear of being bi'ought to 
justice by Graham tugged at the liver of Alvarado; 
and love, the keenest, and hate, the bitterest, in a 
soul the smallest that was ever entitled to the breath 
of life, burnished the little black eyes and inflamed 
the thin nose of one Corporal Pinto. These were the 
worthies who projected the onslaught on the foreign- 
ers. Their plan of operations was the shrewdest one 
ever concocted in California. 

Since the "revolution" of 1836 the California 
Spaniards had been convinced that the Americans 
and Britons were vastly their superiors in courage 
and skill in war. Prom the beginning, therefore, it 
was apparent that if they were to get one or two 
hundred of these men into their power it must be 
done by strategem. Accordingly Graham's annual 
challenge for the Spring races, in 1840, was conven- 
iently construed into a disguised attempt to gather 
his friends for the purpose of overthrowing Alvara- 
do's government. This suggestion was made to the 
minor leading interests, civil and military, and a 
junta was formed for the safety of the State; or in 
plain truth, for the gratification of the several pei-- 
sonal enmities and jealousies of half a dozen scoun- 
drels who, disregarding the most sacred pledges to 
their friends, would rob them of their property and 
sacrifice their lives. 

This junta, marshalling their forces at Monterey, 
adopted the following plan for accomplishing their 
fiendish designs: The soldiers were detailed into 
corps of two, three, and four in number, to which 
were attached several civilized Indians. These bands 
were secretly sent to the abodes of the foreigners, 
with instructions to convey them with dispatch to 
the Alcaldes of the neighboring missions. This they 
accomplished. The victims, on receiving information 
that the Alcaldes wished to see them, repaired to their 
presence willingly, and without suspicions of evil in- 
tentions against them. As soon, however, as they 
arrived they were loaded with irons and cast into 
the loathesome cells of these establishments, in which 
the padres formerly confined their disobedient con- 
verts. 

Thus, one by one, they succeeded in arresting one 
hundred and sixty odd Americans and Britons — brave 
old trappers, mechanics, merchants, whalemen and 
tars — men who, if embodied under Graham, with 
rifles in their hands, could have marched from San 



FARNHAM'S HISTORY OF ALVARADO. 



253 



Francisco to St. Lucas, conquered nine hundred miles 
of coast, and held the government in spite of the 
dastards who were opposing them. But they were 
caught in a net, skillfully thrown over them, and 
were helpless. After each man was bolted safely in 
his dungeon, the harpies proceeded to his house, vio- 
lated his family, plundered his premises, and drove 
away his live-stock as private booty — the reward of 
the brave! 

Having in this manner collected these unhappy 
men in the prisons of the several missions, Alvarado 
and Castro marched their whole disposable force to 
one mission after another, and brought them in, a few 
at a time, to the Government dungeons at Monterey. 
The names of these men, with their places of resi- 
dence, are given below. 

Here follows a list of one hundred and sixty names, 
which will be omitted, as the object is more to show 
something of the character of Alvarado than to give 
a detailed account of the transaction. 

Faimham afterwards got a full account of the 
method of arrest of forty-one of these prisoners. 
The statement of Isaac Graham will serve to sample 
the lot and show the atrocious character of Alvarado. 
It will be remembered that Graham was the one who 
assisted Alvarado to his position, so that in treating 
Graham as he did, he proved himself — well, no term 
sufficiently expressive occurs at this moment. 

I, Isaac Graham, a citizen of the United States 
of America, came across the continent to California, 
with a passport from the Mexican authorities of Chi- 
huahua, and obtained from the general commanding 
in Upper California a license to run a distillery in 
that country for the term of eight years; this busi- 
ness I have followed since that time. 

On the 6th of April last (1840) there appeared to 
be mischief brewing. But what it would prove to be 
none of us could tell. The California Spaniards usually 
travel much about the country, and converse with 
foreignei's rather shyly. They had threatened to 
drive us out of California several times, and we 
tried to guess whether, at last, they were preparing 
to accomplish it; but from what we saw, it was 
impossible to form a correct conclusion. 

On the same day, however, Jose Castro, Bicenta 
Contrina, Ankel Castro, and a runaway Botany bay 
English convict by the name of Garner, a vile fellow, 
and an enemy of mine, because the foreigners would 
not elect him their captain, passed and re-passed my 
house several times, and conversed together in low 
tones of voice. 1 stopped Jose Castro and asked 
him what was the matter. He replied that he was 
going to march against the commandante general, 
Viego, at San Francisco, to depose him from the 
command of the forces. His two companions made 
the same assertion. I knew that Alvarado was 
afraid of Viego, and that Jose Castro was ambitious 
for the place; and for these reasons I partly con- 
cluded that they spoke the truth. 

A little later in the day, however, the vagabond 
Garner called at my house, and, having drunk freely 
of whisky, became rather boisterous, and said sig- 
nificantly, that the time of some people would be 
short; that Jose Castro had received orders from 
the Governor to drive the foreigners out of Califor- 
nia, or to dispose of them in some other way. He 
boasted that he himself would have a pleasant par- 
ticipation in the business. I could not persuade him 
to tell me in what manner, or when this business 



was to take place. I had heard the same threats 
made a number of times within the past year, but it 
resulted in nothing. Believing, therefore, that Gar- 
ner's threats proceeded from the whisky he had 
drunk, rather than the truth, I left him in the yard, 
and in company with my partner, Mr. Niel, went to 
bed. Messrs. Morris and Barton, as usual, took to 
their couches in the still-house. 

We slept quietly until about three o'clock in the 
morning, when I was awakened by the discharge of 
a pistol near my head, the ball of which passed 
through the handkerchief around my neck. I 
sprang to my feet and jumped in the direction of the 
villains, when they discharged six other pistols, so 
near that my shirt took fire in several places. 
Fortunately, the darkness and the trepidation of the 
cowards prevented their taking good aim, for only 
one of the shots took effect, and that one in my left 
arm. 

After firing, they fell back a few paces and com- 
menced reloading their pieces. I perceived by the 
light of their pistols that they were too numerous 
for a single man to contend with, and determined to 
escape. But I had scarcely got six paces from the 
door when I was overtaken and assailed with heavy 
blows from their swords. These I succeeded in 
parrying off to such an extent, that I was not much 
injured by them. Being incensed by my successful 
resistance, they grappled with me, and threw me 
down, when an ensign by the name of Joaquin 
Terres drew his dirk, and, saying with an oath that 
he would let out my life, made a thrust at my heart. 
God saved me again. The weapon, passing between 
my body and my left arm, sunk deep in the ground, 
and before he had an opportunity of repeating his 
blow, they dragged me up the hill in the rear of my 
house, where Jose Castro was standing. They 
called to him — " Here he is! here he is! " whereupon 
Castro rode up and struck me with the back of his 
sword so severely as to bring me to the ground, and 
then ordered four balls to be put through me. But 
this was prevented by a faithful Indian in my serv- 
ice, who threw himself upon me, declaring that he 
would receive the balls in his own heart. 

Unwilling to be thwarted, however, in their designs 
to destroy me, they next fastened a rope to one of 
my arms, and passed it to a man on horseback, who 
wound it firmly around the horn of his saddle. Then 
the rest of them, taking hold of the other arm, 
endeavored to haul my shoulders out of joint; but 
the rope broke. Thinking the scoundrels bent on 
killing me in some way, I begged for liberty to com- 
mend my soul to God. To this they replied: "You 
shall never pray till you kneel over your grave." 
They then conducted me to my house, and permitted 
me to put on my pantaloons. While there, they 
asked where Mr. Morris was. I told them I did not 
. know. They then put lances to my breast, and told 
me to call him or die. I answered that he had made 
his escape. While I was saying this, Mr. Niel came 
to the bouse, pale from the loss of blood, and vomit- 
ing terribly. He had a lance thrust through his 
thigh, and a wound in his leg, nearly separating the 
cord of the heel. 

They next put Mr. Niel and myself in double 
irons, carrying us a half a mile into the plain, left 
me under guard, and returned to plunder the house. 
After having been absent a short time, they came 
and conducted me back to our rifled home. As soon 
as we arrived there, a man by the name of Manuel 
Larias approached me with a drawn sword, and 
commanded me to inform him where my money was 



254 



IIISTOKY OF AMADOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



buried. I told bim I bad none. He cursed me, and 
burned away. I bad Bome buried in the ground, bul 
I determined they should never enjoy it. After 
having robbed me of my books and papers, which 
were all the evidence 1 bad that these very scoun 
drels, and others, were largely indebted to me, and 
having taken whatever was valuable on my premises, 
and distributed it among themselves, they proceeded 

to take an inventory of what was left, as if it were 
i be whole of my property, and then put mo on horse- 
back, and sent me to this prison. You know the 
rest. I am chained like a dog, and suffer like one. 

The testimony of the oilier prisoners shows that 
the same cowardly, cruel spirit prevailed every- 
where in making the arrests. It was at this period 
in the revolution that the bark Don Quixote came 
into the harbor of Monterey, from Honolulu. Though 
usually there were plenty of white men at Monterey, 
none were to be seen now. Thomas O. Larkin, 
afterwards the American Consul, was the only man 
to bo scon, and a Spanish h ombre was detailed to 
listen to every word that should bo said to or by 
him, even sitting down to tea with them. It was 
with the utmost difficulty that the strangers were 
informed that the country was in a state of revolu- 
tion, that it was probable that all the foreigners 
arrested would be shot in the cells where they were 
confined. The question naturally arose, whether 
anything could be done for them? Can they be 
saved? though the numbers on the bark were few. 
It was resolved to make the attempt, though they 
might all be shot in an hour. 

The first duty on setting foot in California is to 
report ones self to the Governor, and obtain from him 
a written permission to remain in the country. This 
I proceeded to do. Mr. Larkin was obliging enough 
to accompany me to the Governor's residence. We 
found before it a small number of men who were 
usually complimented with the cognomen of " guard." 
They consisted of five half-breed Indians, and what 
passed for a white corporal, lounging about the door 
in the manner of grog-shop savans. Their outer 
man is worth a description. They wore raw, bull's 
hide sandals on their feet, leathern breeches, blankets 
about their shoulders, and anything and everything 
about their heads. Of arms they had nothing which 
deserved the name. One made pretensions with an 
old musket without a lock; and his four comrades 
were equally heroic with kindred pieces so deeply 
rusted that the absence of locks would have been an 
unimportant item in estimating their value. 

We passed this formidable body, ascended a flight 
of stairs, and entered the presence of the Governor, 
Juan Baptiste Alvarado, a well-formed, full-blooded 
Californian Spaniard, five feet eleven inches in height, 
with coal-black curly hair, deep black eyes, fiercely 
black eyebrows, high cheek bones, an aquiline nose, 
fine white teeth, brown complexion, and the clearly- 
marked mien of a pompous coward, clad in the broad- 
cloth and whiskers of a gentleman. 

When we entered he was sitting behind a kind of 
writing-desk in the farther corner of the room. He 
rose as we entered and received us with the charac- 
teristic urbanity of a Spanish body without a soul; 
waved us to chairs, when he would have seen us 
tumb un g fr° m the balcony; smiled graciously at us 
one corner of his mouth, while he cursed us 



with the other; sealed himself, laid his hands and 
arms on the upper shelf of his abdomen, and asked 
if the ship had anchored. 

It seems that he had urgent reasons for asking 
this. The coming of a merchant vessel had, when 
he was a Custom House clerk, and since he was 
Governor, been the means of filling his exhausted 
exchequer and paying his debts. When ho was 
informed that the vessel was not laden with mer- 
chandise, and did not propose to make any long stay, 
his disappointment was evident. He threw some 
red-tape formalities in the way of giving Farnham 
a permit to reside on shore. Farnham was a six- 
footer, looked like a man of nerve and power. In the 
present delicate situation of affairs he did not court 
the presence of such men; neither did he dare to 
refuse him. The vessel was standing in and out of 
the harbor; might be one of a fleet outside. Farnham 
was referred to the Alcalde, whom ha found after 
passing the guard, which was a big dog, asleep on a 
rawhide in the corner of an adobe shanty. A full 
hour was consumed in writing the permit, an instru- 
ment of four lines, which had to be countersigned 
by the Governor. When this was accomplished he 
took up his residence with Mr. Larkin, the Consul, 
whose house was not far from some of the prisons 
where the prisoners were confined. 

The shouts of the prisoners for water, food and 
air were distinctly audible. 

" Breathe fast, for God's sake. I must come to the 
grate soon, or I shall suffocate! " 

" Give me water, you merciless devils! Give me 
water! " 

" You infernal sons of the Inquisition, give me 
water or fire on me! " 

" Give us something to eat! O God! we shall die 
here! We can't breathe! Half of us can't speak! " 
And so on the night through. 

Four hundred troops, such as they were, consti- 
tuted the army. Old Graham, with fifty of his rifle- 
men, would have sent them flying like a herd of sheep, 
but the old fellow was double chained. Through the 
influence of Larkin, who stretched the facts about 
the vessel several points to make Alvarado believe it 
was a government explorer connected with a fleet, 
Farnham was permitted to interview the prisoners, 
when he took the statements before referred to. It 
was noticed that the vessel went out of the harbor 
every night and returned in the morning, as if com- 
municating with a fleet; that Farnham was making 
signals of some kind when the vessel was in the har- 
bor, though, in fact, the signals were a sham, as 
neither partj^ understood the other. Mr. Larkin 
professed to be in ignorance with regard to the vis- 
itors, said they certainly appeared to be persons high 
in authority. By thus working on the fears of Al- 
varado, Larkin was permitted to feed the prisoners. 
Sixty were found confined in, a pen twenty feet 
square, where there was not room to lie down, the 
floor being knee deep in mud and filth. During the 






THE ABORIGINES. 



255 



time it was learned that the authorities were consid- 
ering the proposition of shooting all the prisoners in 
the pens. Farnham wore a sword with the Ameri- 
can eagle on the hilt, and, assuming some airs of im- 
portance, resented any restraint on his movements, 
even refusing to give audience to Alvarado when sent 
for. Farnham had managed to communicate some 
courage to the prisoners, who defiantly sung some of 
the patriotic songs of their land. Pinto, before 
referred to, was commander of the guard, and became 
alarmed when the shouts of defiance reached his ears. 
He was told from the jail that the government of 
California had better commit suicide than to bring 
the British Lion and the American Eagle to war with 
them. Alvarado was finally moved to give them a 
trial, or at least a form of one. 

On the morning of the 22d of April, 1840, twenty- 
one of the prisoners were brought before the Gov- 
ernor, and, one after another, questioned about the 
supposed conspiracy. Among the others was Gra- 
ham, who also denied any knowledge of the conspir- 
acy. A miserable tool of the Governor, who under- 
stood so little English as to fail to make himself 
understood by the prisoners, was the interpreter. By 
his aid a case was made against them. Garner, a 
Botany Bay convict, instrumental in the arrest of 
Graham, testified as to the existence of a conspiracy 
which was to exterminate the whole Spanish people 
of the province! Under this kind of testimony and 
trial forty-six were found guilty of conspiracy and 
were sent to Tepic for the Mexican government to 
deal with. Graham and Morris were so heavily 
ironed that four Indians were required to carry their 
emaciated bodies aboard the vessel which was char- 
tered to take them away. Many of these persons 
had native wives who clung to the departing prison- 
ers with cries of despair. They followed the prisoners 
from the jails as far as they could, helping to bear up 
the chains. They were driven away with blows. 
They had no homes to return to, as the soldiers had 
plundered their houses when the arrests were made, 
and stood wailing on the shore as the ship left the 
harbor. 

A general thanksgiving was ordered and mass was 
sung in the churches for the great deliverance! It is 
said that Alvarado was much disappointed that he 
did not shoot Graham, and thus cancel twenty-two 
hundred and thirty-five dollars owing to him in mer- 
cantile transactions. This, and other events con- 
nected therewith, occupied Alvarado the rest of the 
month. On the 8th of the following month he made the 
famous Arroyo Seco Grant. 

Much that is bitter denunciation has been left out 
of this narrative. It must be remembered that when 
Farnham arrived one hundred and sixty persons 
were lying in jail for an imaginary offense; that 
these were the persons who had helped Alvarado to 
power; that they had been arrested without warrant, 
confined in filthy pens, their families maltreated, and 
their homes destroyed, and Ave can excuse some of 



the writer's indignation. That Alvarado was mak- 
ing land grants in the mountains at this time, where 
no Mexican dared set his foot, is improbable. That 
he was capable of fixing up the records, in connec- 
tion with others, so as to show a grant at that time, 
may be possible. 



CHAPTEB XXXIX. 

THE ABORIGINES. 

Origin — Probable Antiquity — Indian Belies — Personal Character 
of California Indians — Division of Tribes — Indian Huts — 
Food — Indian Mills — Indian Cooking — Meal Time — Cloth- 
ing — Legal Tender — Grizzlies — Arms — Principles of Gov- 
ernment — Family Relations — Marriage — Small Hands and 
Feet — Religion — Funerals — Military Reviews — Numbers 
Assembled — Military Evolutions — Games — Sweat House — 
Fandango at Yeomet 1851— Diseases and Treatment— Scourge 
of 1832-33 — Anecdotes of the Indians. 

Many attempts have been made to identify the 
Aborigines with the people of the eastern hemisphere, 
or at least to prove their descent therefrom. A Jap- 
anese junk sunk on our coast is taken as evidence of 
a Mongolian immigration. The figure of a cross on 
one of the temples of Central America is taken as 
proof of a former Christian worship, though the tem- 
ples themselves antedate Christianity by centuries. 
Learned linguists find a resemblance in some words 
of the Welsh and a tribe of Indians in New Mexico, 
and forthwith a treatise or volume appears to prove 
that in the year 731, Ap Gllyyss and a hundred other 
Welshmen, driven out by the tyranny of a despotic 
prince, sailed away and were never heard of more 
until they were found, one thousand 3 T ears afterward, 
settled on the head-waters of the Colorado in New 
Mexico, living in stone houses such as are found in 
Wales. It would seem that common sense in regard 
to such matters might be called in without detri- 
ment to the results. • 

PROBABLE ANTIQUITY. 

The facts are, the populations of the New World 
show as much divergence of character as those of 
the Old World, and can lay about as good claim to 
antiquity. Portions of the American continent are 
older in geological formation than Asia, and may 
have been peopled as early. From the north to the 
south, from the east to the west, on both Americas, 
are the indisputable traces of ancient empire. The 
thousands of mounds in the valley of the Mississippi, 
the ruins of temples in Central America, which ap- 
pear to be as ancient as the pyramids of Egypt, the 
ruins of buildings in Arizona, all prehistoric, speak of 
the rise and growth of nations; of the struggles of 
infancy, of the dominion of maturity; of nations 
exterminated and others taking their place. The 
colossal character of these ruins, and the extent of 
ground covered by them, are evidences of thousands 
of years of growth, which may have been cotem- 
porary, previous or subsequent to the Asiatic or 
European civilization. Even in California, though 
no granite temples record the ancient power and cul- 
tivation of the tribes, there is evidence of their 



256 



BISTORT OF A.MADOB COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



sionof the country forages. The shell mounds 
along the bob shore are the accumulation of centuries. 
Indian implements are found buried beneath mounds 
<>i' earth and debris of rivers, which prove their an- 
tiquity beyond all doubt. 

INDIAN RELK 8. 

Iii 1853, while mining out a portion of Bumbug 
gulch, near Volcano, in Amador county, the writer of 
this history found an Indian mortar similar to those in 
use, buried under ten or twelve feel of soil, on which 
timber of considerable size was growing. The place 

■ d lo have been used as a Bpring, burnt sticks 

and othertrash indicatinga camp nearby. Tin 
was quite rich, having a hundred dollars or more in 
a little spol a yard square. If the squaws who used 
I his Bpring had ever cleaned it out, they could hardly 
help finding some of the gold which was mixed with 
the trash. Others have had a similar experience. 
Indian relies, consisting of mortars, pestles, etc., were 
taken out of the ground at a depth of eighteen feet, 
by •'. I\ ML. Johnston, showing a great antiquity. 

PERSONAL CHARACTER. 

The Indians of California are rather shorter in 
stature and stouter built than the Indians east of the 
Rocky Mountains, though occasional^' one might be 
found who was tall and slender, like some of the 
Sioux or Pawnees. The Indians of the Pacific coast 
were also of a more dusky hue, but the same long, 
straight, coarse, black hair, beardless faces, and dark, 
dreamy c}-es, characterized all the North American 
races. The divergence from the general type was 
not greater than can be seen in any race of men, in 
fact, it appears to be true that the less the cultiva- 
tion the more uniformity of character. 

DIVISION OP TRIBES. 

The Indians of the Sacramento and San Joaquin 
valleys were divided into several tribes, though there 
seemed to be a blending by intermarriage so that 
the lines were not rigidly drawn. It is probable 
that individuals could change their allegiance Avitb- 
out much trouble. The Indians living in the vicin- 
ity of the upper Cosumnes, including the Dry Creek 
Indians, called themselves Neshenams. The Poo- 
soones lived about the mouth of the American river; 
the Quotoas, around Placerville, the Colomas, 
around Sutter's old mill, the AVapumnes, near 
Latrobe. The Mokelkos occupied that portion of 
San Joaquin county, lying east and north of Stock- 
ton. From Staples' Ferry to Athearn's, they called 
themselves the La-las. The Indians of the lone 

valley called themselves Lucklum-las. The 

Machacos occupied the Mokelumne river to Campo 
Seco. The La-las were absorbed by the Mokel- 
kos, who were the most powerful of all the tribes, 
and had nearly a score of towns, with a total popu- 
lation of three or four thousand. They were con- 
tinually at war, sometimes against the Machacos, 
sometimes against the Cosos (Cosumne Indians) and 
the Jackson Yalley Indians combined. The Mokel- 



kos claimed to be Christianized, and had for chiefs 
four brothers — San ato, at Staples' ferry; Loweno at 

Woodbridge; Antonio, on the Calaveras, and Maximo, 
-till living near Terry's mill. A favorite battle- 
ground was near the old brick church not far from 
Staples' ferry. The Walla Wallas from Oregon some- 
times came into the \ alloy, in which case the tribes 
all combined to expel them. This is supposed to 
have happened about ]W.',. as the Walla Wallas are 
charged with having poisoned the waters and pro- 
duced a general sickness. 

norsEs. 
They had no houses worthy of the name, their 
camps being a collection of brush shanties, with 
pieces of bark, sticks, and perhaps skins, put on the 
exposed side to protect them from the wind and 
rain. They were generally on the move, pulling up 
camp whenever game, fish or acorns, became scarce- 

FOOD. 

They never cultivated the soil until taught to do so 
)yy the whites. Nearly everything was at times con- 
verted into food. In times of plenty they feasted 
and wasted; in times of scarcity starved, the weak 
and aged dying. The acorn, pine nut, and seeds 
from plants furnished them with substantial food in 
the season. 

INDIAN MILLS. 

The acorn was gathered by the squaws and 
reduced to a powder, by pounding in mortars or 
holes worn into the rocks by the stone pestles. The 
seeds of plants were also reduced to flour the same 
way, as also was corn, wheat and barley after the 
advent of the white man. The mortars were holes 
pounded or dug out with infinite labor in boulders, 
generally of volcanic rock. These seemed to have 
been selected as much for shape of the boulder 
which needed no dressing on the outside, as for the 
quality of the rock. These mortars were carried from 
camp to camp by the squaws, and were a necessity 
in the valleys and in Other portions of the country 
where there was no hard rock. In the mountains, 
where granite or other hard rocks were found, the 
custom was to pound the acorns in holes in the 
rocks, which by constant use had become worn to 
a depth of several inches, large enough to hold a 
gallon or more. Sometimes a dozen or more of these 
holes can be found in a space of a square rod, show- 
ing the sociable habits of the women, who, while 
pounding their acorns would chat, tell stories, and 
laugh with the greatest glee. These mill-sites may 
be found in the vicinity of every oak or nut-pine 
grove. 

INDIAN COOKING. 

When the acorns or seeds were reduced to powder, 
the mass was mixed with water and boiled in baskets 
made of reeds. These were the only kettles and culi- 
nary vessels, though this boiling was sometimes done 
in a hole in the ground, which was lined with clay 
and patted down until it would hold water, the clay 







W.--JX 



P N. PECK. 



TOMPSON <^ weaT PUB 0*filAHt> CAL.^ 



THE ABORIGINES. 



257 



soon becoming tight by the soaking into it of the 
pulp or mush to be cooked. The boiling in either 
case was effected by dropping in the mass smooth 
stones, previously heated to a proper point in a fire. 
Stones were selected which, by experience, were 
found to stand the effect of the fire. When the mass 
was sufficiently boiled it was put away to cool, for 
the Indian never spoils his teeth or stomach with 
hot food, both being kept in the best condition to 
old age. 

MEAL TIME. 

When the meal time arrived the setting of the 
table was but a short affair. No dishes to wash, no 
table-cloth to spread or shake out. The family 
gathered around the basket and the open hand 
served for a spoon, and the open mouth (an Indian's 
mouih has a tremendous expansion) received the 
load and disposed of it without trouble. The acorn 
season was a time for rejoicing. When the harvest 
was over the different tribes visited each other and 
feasted until the acorns were gone. Wben this 
occurred they hunted rabbits, quail and deer, and 
when game was scarce would live on bugs, snails, 
lizards and gophers. Eats and mice came in with 
the white man, and probably were never used as 
food by them. Occasionally a daring raid would be 
made on the cattle ranches, and a supply of beef 
obtained. Grasshoppers and young wasps or yellow 
jackets were esteemed an especial delicacy, and no 
boy of the Northern States ever dug out and fought 
a swarm of " bumble bees " with more zeal than a 
young digger would a hornet's nest. The squirming 
innocents (innocent of stings) would vanish in a 
hurry, the Indian's face always asking for more. 
The young Indians were turned out early to hunt 
for themselves. During the latter part of the win- 
ter, especially if the winter was cold, they suffered 
greatly, and many would perish. Whenever any of 
them were hired on the ranches and ate the food of 
the white people, they usually suffered sickness of 
some kind. 

CLOTHING. 

It has been asserted that, previous to the advent 
of the whites, they went naked. I think this is a 
mistake. Tbe young ones from childhood to near 
maturity wore no clothing except for ornament, and 
many of the males went naked or without any 
attempt to conceal their persons. The women wore 
a covering over the loins made of buckskin, or 
perhaps bark plaited. Considerable taste was dis- 
played in ornamenting the very short breeches, for 
such they Avere, with pieces of quills or shells. The 
limbs and body were usually fully exposed. The 
young squaws soon learned to conceal their well- 
developed bosoms from the admiring gaze of a 
white man by donning a shirt, and, soon, a skirt, for 
modesty is to woman born, and is aroused by the 
first glance of passion, whether in a gilded saloon or 
in a pine forest. Both sexes wore shell ornaments, 
33 



wrought out with much labor, in fact, pieces of 
abalone shells, strung on sinews, was the 

LEGAL TENDER. 

An Indian possessing three or four coils, long 
enough to hang on his arm, was rich. Soon after the 
coming of the whites, beads took the place of shells, 
but the supply becoming too abundant they soon 
ceased to circulate as money, and were used 
chiefly as ornaments. A very successful hunter was 
able to wear a necklace of bears' claws. This 
would give him a right to the highest seat in the 
council. 

GRIZZLIES. 

A grizzly was a full match for a band of Indians, 
and the latter generally let the grizzly alone. When 
an attack was made, the result was somewhat uncer- 
tain. An old Indian said, "Sometimes Indians eat 
bear, sometimes bear eat Indians; don't know." 
Bears abounded in all tbe valleys of the foot-hills. 
According to Powell, the Jackson valley chief, six 
or seven would come into the valley at a time, to 
eat the young clover. Three or four years before 
the discovery of gold, a big one was killed by a 
strong bowman in Jackson valley, and a great feast 
was made, a hundred warriors toning up their cour- 
age by helping to eat him. 

ARMS. 

The bow of the California Indian is a marvel of 
strength and efficiency. Although so small and 
light, it will, when well constructed, stand a pull 
of two hundred j^ounds. I have seen strong men 
place them under their feet, and lift with all their 
strength, and still fail to break them. They are 
made of wood, generally yew, sometimes cedar, and 
derive most of their elasticity from a covering on 
the back made of sinew, nicely laid on with glue. 
Tbe string is made of the bark of the wild hemp, 
and is superior in strength to the best linen or silk. 
The arrows are made of wood, or reeds, a small bush 
growing along the creeks furnishing favorite sticks 
for this, purpose. The points were formerly made 
of obsidian, and were about three inches long, flat, 
ovoid in shape, with a notch on either edge for a 
piece of sinew to hold it to the shaft; the feather, 
or thumb end, had some half feathers tied to it, to 
give it a rotary motion, like a rifle ball. This was 
the style of the best arrows, which were used only 
for war or large game. The arrows used for birds 
and rabbits were destitute of the obsidian point and 
feathers. An Indian brave will carry his arrows 
in an otter or beaver skin, and, with a quiver full, 
is a match for a white man with a navy revolver. 
After the advent of the whites, the points Were 
often made of glass. If you want to try your 
patience and skill, make — or attempt to — an arrow- 
head out of an old junk bottle; yet an expert Indian 
will have no trouble in doing it. The light arrows 
of the Indians have only a short flight, and the 
natives soon obtained rifles and shot guns. 



258 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



1'lUNCirLES OF GOVERNMENT. 
Personal prowess was the foundation of authority. 
Though tlu> government was hereditary, the heir 
must prove himself before he could rule. Ho had 
to chastise the refractory and disorderly, and in 
Borne instances take (lie life of a subject, direct the 
tribe to new hunting grounds, arrange the bunting 
parties, and take the lead in all things. If a rival 
warrior or hunter disputes his authority, a duel is 
imperative, the survivor taking his place. Powell, 
of Jackson valley, won his position in this way. 
Ho is, or was, a person of immense strength, and, 
when not full of whisky, had much self-respect and 
dignity, and with the advantages of education and 
training, would have made himself respected in any 
community. 

FAMILY RELATIONS. 

The family relations were quite binding. The In- 
dian considered his children as a species of property. 
They did not he;»itate to commit infanticide when 
the means of living was scarce, believing with the 
Chinese, that an infant had better die than to grow 
up to starvation. There seems to be no want of 
affection, however, for when the child is permitted 
to live, it never perishes from neglect. It is wrapped 
in soft grass, tied to a kind of frame, which keeps 
it straight. Over the child's head is placed a hoop, 
as a sort of protection from accidental thumps, also 
to furnish a resting place or support for a shade, to 
protect the babe's eyes when traveling. The squaw 
will place a strap or band over her head and around 
their conical baskets, and carry a whole family, or, 
if necessary, pack a hundred pounds of flour, appar- 
ently with all ease, on a journey, while the buck 
leads the way, with his bow strung and arrow in 
place, for game or an enemy. The labor falls on 
the women. They gather acorns, though the buck 
will sometimes climb the tree to shake them off, 
pound and cook them, transport the baggage from 
one camp to another, fix up the hut, and do all the 
work except hunting and fighting. 

MARRIAGE. 

When old enough to marry, the daughter is sold 
to some agreeable bidder, for a sum perhaps equiva- 
lent to the price of a ponjr. The sale is generally 
agreeable to all parties, and the purchase money is 
regarded much in the light of a dower. The 
marriage ceremony is very slight. If with a neigh- 
boring tribe, the bridegroom usually resides, for a 
time, with her tribe. A chief may have several 
wives, each in a different camp. Infidelity is, or was, 
comparatively unknown among them, the penalty 
being death to both parties. A squaw was stoned to 
death in Sacramento county in 1850, for yielding to 
a white man. It is incumbent on the injured party 
to inflict the penalty. 

SMALL HANDS AND FEET. 

When young, the squaws have good shaped limbs, 
small hands and feet, which are the envy of white 



women. As thej r get older they take on fat, have 
Durham backs, large, flabby faces, and get terribly 
coarse. As they get old they looso their fat, become 
wrinkled and attenuated, and are no more lovely. 
They never get bald, and, as the hair turns white 
and learns to stand on end, they become absolutely 
hideous. Their voices are generally soft and sweet. 
Such a thing as scolding is never heard among them. 

RELIGION. 

Their religious notions are very dim. An old 
Indian says: " White man die, he go up; don't know 
where Indian go to." On the death of an Indian, 
the news is communicated from one camp to another 
by a peculiar, dismal howl by the squaws. It is 
heard for miles around, traveling from camp to 
camp. Soon the Indians begin to pour in to assist 
in the burial. Every trail brings a howling party. 
A grave is dug near, in fact, in the camp, four or five 
feet deep; the corpse is wrapped in a blanket, in as 
small compass as possible, the bones being often 
broken to effect the purpose. The body is placed in 
the hole in a sitting position, and the soil pressed 
thoroughly around it, a small mound raised, and a 
few trinkets placed thereon. The mourners (women) 
keep up the while the noise, which bears a great 
resemblance to the laments of the wild Irish over 
their dead. The lament, sung or howled within a 
compass of two or three notes with minor intervals, 
was translated: " Where is our brave man ? who now 
will hunt for us and kill meat? who will lead us to 
catch the fish ? who will now kindle his fire ? who will 
make his bed ? who will comfort him ? who will make 
him happy? he was a brave man; he was a good 
man; we will perish without you; we all love you; 
come back to your wife, your children." The elderly 
women performed the part of chief mourners or 
howlers; and though it was evident that much of the 
grief was a formality, perhaps paid for, the cere- 
monies were rather impressive. After the funeral 
services were completed, the Avhole tribe left that 
place, not coming back for months. Occasional 
visits were made, however, and a few mournful 
words chanted over the grave. Sometimes the body 
was burned on a large pile of wood, in which case 
the mourning was kept up during the whole time of 
the cremation. The widow is said to anoint her 
face with a black paint made of the charred remains 
of the husband, and it is also said that it is never 
washed off, but is left to wear off, after which she is 
ready to marry again. The children are put up in a 
tree, on something like a crow's nest, to waste away. 
James and John Surface of lone, when boys, found 
such a grave, and with boyish curiosity climbed the 
tree and peeped in the nest, but the staring face of a 
half-decayed child made them hurry down. 

MILITARY REVIEWS. 

The war dance was the great event in Indian life, 
though the name is about as appropriate for the 
exercise as it would be for the evolutions of cavalry 



THE ABORIGINES. 



259 



or artillery. Tbe war dance is of a gymnastic char- 
acter, and is performed wholly by the most vigorous 
males in the tribe, and is about as well calculated 
to develop muscular power and endurance as any 
gymnastic exercise taught at our schools. When it 
was determined to hold a military review, invitations 
were sent to such tribes as it was deemed proper to 
invite, to come prepared at a certain day. The cards 
of invitation, or, perhaps proclamation would be a 
better word, was a string with knots in it, each knot 
representing a night and day, the announcement be- 
ing made some fifteen or twenty days before the time 
of meeting. Every morning a knot was cut off, and 
thus the coming of the day recorded. On the event- 
ful morning the camp was deserted by all except 
three or four of the aged and infirm. The warrior 
put on his necklace of bear claws or his belts of 
wampum (strings of shells); his arrows were burn- 
ished and straightened anew; his bow put in the best 
condition; a plume of eagle feathers adorned his 
head, and his fur cloak, made from the animals he 
had slaughtered, was thrown over his shoulders. If 
he was rich enough to own a horse, he mounted his 
steed and led the way to the rendezvous, followed by 
his braves, on foot or mounted, with drawn bows. 
The squaws and children followed with the supplies 
of acorn mush, rabbits, deer or other meat, and man- 
zanita berries for making their cider. All the wealth 
of the tribe was displayed. The squaws wore their 
best ornaments, and everj'thing was done to enter 
the camp in a superior style. 

NUMBER ASSEMBLED. 

As many as a thousand Indians would gather at 
these reviews. Eating, drinking and gambling were 
of course prominent events. The Indian is a good 
feeder when he has opportunity, though he can go 
without or subsist on a minimum when necessary. 
His capacious mouth, perfect, white teeth, and 
enormous chest, attest his eating capacity, and his 
sleek, plump look, the power of digestion. Before 
the introduction of whisky and the vices of civiliza- 
tion, he was a splendid animal. After a general 
interchange of civilities and current news, prepara- 
tions for the fete were made. A space of ground 
sixty feet or more across was made smooth and hard. 
A hollow log was brought to be used as a drum for 
regulating the movements. 

MILITARY EVOLUTIONS. 

From ten to twenty of the warriors desirous of 
the honors would step into the ring and form a circle 
around the precentor, and, at a sign from him, com- 
menced jumping, with lungs inflated and muscles 
contracted, jumping stiff-legged — as Ave say of a 
bucking horse — at each jump expelling a portion of 
the air from the lungs, with a sort of ugh! ugh! mov- 
ing slowly around tbe circle, occasionally reversing 
their circular movement with loud shout and a flour- 
ish of the bows which they hold in their hands. The 
movements, moderate at first, each moment become 



more vigorous; the contracted muscles stand out in 
knots; the perspiration rolls off the bodies, and 
the air is redolent of the perfume of Indian, accumu- 
lated dirt and smoke. 

It is now evident that this is no capering to the 
soft tinklings of a lute. It is work, the hardest kind 
of work. The multitude gather around, and encour- 
age the performers. They redouble their exertions; 
they bound upwards with the mere spring of the 
toes without bending a limb, leaping a foot or more 
from the ground. When human nature is about 
exhausted, a signal is made, a few grand jumps are 
given, the pei'formance ends with a shout, and the 
braves are taken away and rubbed down by the 
admiring squaws. After an hour's intermission, 
another band will repeat the performance, and, if 
possible, surpass it. This continues for several days, 
or until the provisions are exhausted, when the 
homeward march is made, and the ordinary life 
resumed. 

GAMES. 

The Indians had games involving feats of strength 
and activity, which were played one camp against 
another, one of which was much like foot-ball, which, 
however, was said to have been learned from the San 
Diego Indians, about 1850, so that it might have 
been introduced by the whites. The ball was made 
of skins, tied into a compact form, and was about as 
large as a child's head. It was rather hard on the 
naked toes of the Indians, occasionally breaking 
them. The Indians made as much noise whde play- 
ing this as would a crowd of school-boys playing base 
ball. 

THE SWEAT-HOUSE. 

Every central camp had a council house, or fort, 
or sweat-house as the whites called it. It was prob- 
ably used for many purposes; as a shelter in bad 
weather; as council room when important business 
called the braves together, and as a fort when 
attacked. It was from thirty to fifty feet across, 
circular, sunk three feet or more into the ground, 
was covered with branches and afterwards with dirt, 
so tbat at a distance it had the appearance of a 
mound of earth. There was an opening in the top 
for the escape of smoke, and had one entrance, long, 
low and narrow. 

Tbe middle portion of the room might be eight or 
nine feet high, slojiing to four or five feet at the 
sides. Tbe roof was sustained on forked posts upon 
which rested the cross-timbers. In a storm, or when 
attacked, a large number could take refuge in this 
house. It would be almost impossible to dislodge a 
body of Indians from one of these houses without 
large guns to shell them out. They are, in fact, a 
sort of bomb-proof. It is doubtful whether any of 
them remain in the county at this time. 

FANDANGO AT YEOMET. 

At the time of the opening of the mines, the rela- 
tions of the white man and Indian was somewhat 






HISTORY OF A.MADOB COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



doubtful. The Indian mostly kepi oul of the way 
of the rifle of the far west man. who would as soon 
draw on him as a deor. The Indian soon found thai 

he w as sal \t in the town than in the woods, and soon 

learned to pan out and exchange Ins dust for sugar 
or meat. It was the policy of the government, fora 
while at least, to gather them on reservations, as the 
easiesl way of maintaining the peace. Many of the 
Datives bad retreated to the mountains, and occa- 
sionally a white man was murdered in retaliation for 
the slaving of an Indian by some thoughtless miner. 
Expeditions were undertaken to bring them in. Some 
were found far up among the snows, starving and 
freezing. When assured of safety they were not 
unwilling to surrender and be fed. On one occasion 
an old chief of gigantic size, being entirely naked, 
was induced to put on clothing. lie was given a 
coat too small and short to cover much of his person. 
He observed that the commander of the party of 
white men who came after him wore a pair of spec- 
tacles and a plug hat, and manifested a desire to do 
the same himself, supposing these things to be marks 
of authority, lie was gratified, and took great 
pleasure in strutting around in bis uniform of small 
coat, plug hat and brass-bowed spectacles. A party 
of several hundred Indians were collected at the 
forks of the Cosumnes in 1851, by a government 
agent by the name of Belcher, who fed them for 
some weeks on beef. This was about the first oppor- 
tunity of the miners of that vicinity to study the 
Indian in his peaceful relations, and a great many 
took advantage of it. Even at this time most of the 
Indians had put on clothing, and the men as well as 
the squaws had some sense of modesty. 

When a beef was killed it was quickly skinned 
and cut to pieces by the Indians, and the gorging 
commenced. The bucks got most of the meat; the 
squaws, whether from choice or necessity, probably 
the latter, got the intestines. Those persons who 
desire to remember the Indian maiden as a model of 
beauty, purity and neatness, had better skip this arti- 
cle. The women would carry the intestines to the 
fire, rip them open, empty them of the undigested con- 
tents, and then proceed to cut them into long strips, 
holding on to the intestines with their toes for this 
purpose. They laid these strips, without washing or 
other preparation, on the fire, and when warmed 
through, would eat them with much gusto. I have 
witnessed the same thing at other times. Those who 
think that an artificial style of life begets a love for 
stimulants will have to find some other reason with 
the Indian, for he takes to whisky as a babe does to 
milk. A drunken Indian is not less foolish, noisy 
and brutal, tban bis white brother*. In spite of all 
laws to the contrary, the sale of whisky to the In- 
dian goes on and is doing as much as anything else 
to thin out the race. 

PREVAILING DISEASES AND TREATMENT. 

Like all tribes of uncivilized people, the Indians 
treated disease with a mixture of herbs and sorcery. 



Starvation, gluttony and exposure were the sources 
of most of their ailings. The survival of the fittest 
was a thing of cour.-c. There were few lame or de- 
formed. The squaw about to become a mother 
would retire from the camp for a day or two and live 
in a hut prepared for the occasion in some secluded 
place. A " lying-in hospital " of this kind, for the 
Bucna Vista Indians, was a nest under the brow of a 
rock on the south side of the mountain, so hidden by 
the bushes that no indication of it appeared to a per- 
son casually passing. 

Some Indian in the tribe usually administered 
herbs and incantations when too much clover in the 
Spring, or too much meat after a successful bunt 
overtasked the powers of the stomach. Occasionally 
epidemics would sweep away half the population. 

GREAT SCOURGE, 1832-33. 

Colonel J. J. Warner, now of Los Angeles, a mem- 
ber of the Evving trapping expedition, which passed 
north through these valleys in 1832, and back again 
in 1833, says: — 

In the Fall of 1832, there were a number of Indian 
villages on Kings river, between its mouth and the 
mountains; also on the San Joaquin river, from the 
base of the mountains down to and some distance 
below the great slough. On the Merced river, from 
the mountains to its junction with the San Joaquin 
there were no Indian villages; but from about this 
point on the San Joaquin, as well as on its principal 
tributaries, the Indian villages were numerous, many 
of them containing from fifty to one hundred dwell- 
ings, built with poles and thatched with rushes. 
With some few exceptions, the Indians were peace- 
ably disposed. On the Tuolumne, Stanislaus, and 
Calaveras rivers there were Indian villages above 
the mouths, as also at or near their junction with 
the San Joaquin. The most hostile were on the 
Calaveras river. The banks of the Sacramento 
river, in its whole course thrrugh the valle3', was 
studded with Indian villages, the houses of which, 
in the Spring, during the daj'-lime, were red with 
the salmon the aborigines were curing. 

At this time there were not, on the San Joaquin or 
Sacramento rivers, or any of their tributaries, nor 
within the valleys of the two rivers, any inhabitants 
but Indians. On no part of the continent over 
which I had then or have since traveled was so 
numerous an Indian population, subsisting upon the 
natural products of the soil and waters, as in the 
valleys of the San Joaquin and Sacramento. There 
was no cultivation of the soil by them; game, fish, 
nuts of the forest, and seeds of the field constituted 
their entire food. They were experts in catching 
fish in many ways, and in snaring game in divers 
modes. 

On our return, late in the Summer of 1833, we 
found the valleys depopulated. From the head of 
the Sacramento to the great bend and slough of the 
San Joaquin we did not see more than six or eight 
live Indians, while large numbers of their skulls and 
dead bodies were to be seen under almost every 
shade tree near water, where the uninhabited and 
deserted villages bad' been converted into grave- 
yards; and on the San Joaquin river, in the imme- 
diate neighborhood of the larger class of villages, 
which the preceding year were the abodes of large 
numbers of these Indians, we found not only many 



THE ABORIGINES. 



2«1 



graves, but the vestiges of a funeral pyre. At the 
mouth of Kings river we encountered the fir>t and 
only village of the stricken race that we had seen 
after entering the great valley; this village contained 
a large number of Indians temporarily stopping at 
that place. 

We were encamped near the village one night 
only, and during that time, the death angel passing 
over the camping ground of the plague-stricken fugi- 
tives, waved his wand, summoning from a little rem- 
nant of a once numerous people a scoreof victims to 
muster in the land of the Manitou; and the cries of 
the dying, mingling with the wails of the bereaved, 
made the night hideous in that veritable valley of 
death. 

ANECDOTES OF THE INDIANS. 

Captain Charlie was quite a character in his way. 
He had seen the foreign mining tax collector going 
about among the Chinamen collecting $-1 a month 
from them, and he concluded to try it himself. 
Knowing the value of an impressive appearance, he 
put on, in addition to his rather short hickory shirt 
which constituted his usual dress, a naval coat much 
too small for his well-rounded body, which had 
the effect of hauling his arms back and giving a 
peculiar strut to his walk. He also put on a pair of 
brass-bowed spectacles. He managed to get a large 
book, a Bible as it was said, and with some pencils 
and paper he started out, backed by some half a 
dozen of his braves, to enforce the collection. His 
usual salutation was, " This my dirt, my countlee, 
my gold; you pay me folin miners tax," which they 
usually did without much dispute. He gave them, 
in exchange for their money, a paper full of pictures 
of arrows, bows, knives, and other warlike imple- 
ments. This continued for some days, when the 
officers of the county interfered and told Jack that 
he must not do it any more. Jack was not to be 
thwarted so easily, however. 

One morning, when Bill Gist, Deputy Sheriff, col- 
lector of the foreign miners tax, was on his daily 
round, he visited a camp where he had every reason 
to think a large number of Chinamen were at work, 
but none were in sight. Captain Charlie was perched 
on a rock, singing in his happiest mood some of his 
triumphs over the Indians, or perhaps a love ditty to 
some -fascinating squaw. "No-wa-ha-har Neshean. 
No-wa-ha-har Mokelke," etc. 

Gist — " Good morning, Charlie." 

Charlie — "Good day. No-wa-ha-har Neshean" — 
(in a most indifferent manner). 

Gist — " Charlie, where are the Chinamen?" 

Charlie — " Do no; me no see. No-wa-ha-har, No- 
wa-ha-har Neshean." 

Gist suspected something wrong, and told Charley 
that he knew where the Chinamen were, but he denied 
knowing anything about it, and kept his song going 
in a provokingly cool way. He thought he would 
leave and come some other time, but Captain Charlie 
was on the watch. 

" Bill Gist, how much you give me show you 
twenty Chinamen?" 



" Five dollars," says Bill. 

"You think Indian d n fool, you catchlee 

eighty dollars; give five dollars? no-wa-ha-har, 
Neshean." 

"Ten," says Gist. 

"No-wa-ha-har, Neshean." 

Gist offered fifteen, but Charlie was unmoved. 

Gist was about to leave, but Charley had not played 
all his trumps. 

" You give me twenty dollars, make sixty dollars 
easy." 

Gist offered the twenty, and had to pay the money 
down, for Charley had learned to distrust a white 
man's promise. 

After Jack got his money he told Gist " to go into 
chaplal," meaning the brush near by, " and go sleep; 
bime-by Chinaman he come." 

Giht hid himself in the bushes, and soon the Chinaman 
came to work, when he pounced them, and exacted 
the eighty dollars in full. Soon afterwards, meeting 
Charlie, he learned that the rascal had hidden the 
Chinamen in a tunnel for twenty dollars, and after 
getting twenty out of him, had told the Chinamen 
to come out, saying to them, 

'■ Folin miner tax-klector, he gone; no more come 
back." 

The last seen of him he was showing his twenties 
with the remark that, " Chinamen heap good men. 
Catchee twenty dollars hide um; catchee twenty 
dollars find um; heap good Chinamen." 

At another time, he undertook to run a boarding- 
house, at so much per week. He got a cabin, some 
flour and meat, table utensils, and a bell, and opened 
in style, ringing the bell three times a day; " all the 
same as white men." His institution flourished until 
the following Sunday (pay-day), when it stopped for 
the reason, as Charley said, 

" D n Indian no 'count, no pay." 

lie also engaged in mining, lie found some good 
ground up on a side-hill, and undertook to carry 
water in a ditch to the place, but he failed to make 
the water run to it. 

" White men make water run up hill, Indian ro 
can do. White man heap sabe." 



CHAP TEE XL. 

CANALS. 
Kilhcim Ditches — Ham Ditch — Amador and Sutter Ditch — Wil- 
low Spring Ditch — Floating Lumber — N~ovel Passenger B >at 
— Empire Ditch — Amador Ditch — Bueua Vista Ditch — 
Lancha Plana Ditch — The Nigger Ditch — Poverty Bar Ditch 
— Volcano Ditch — Cosumnes Water Company — The Amador 
Canal. 

Soon after the coming of the miners, the want of 
water and the means to supply it were often the 
subjects of consideration. From turning the water 
out of a river or gulch to mine out the bed, to carry- 
ing it a mile or two to wash rich dirt, was but a 
small step. The season of 1850-51, was dry, little 
or no rain falling until April. During the Winter 



262 



HISTOID OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



in i r i \ Bhorl ditches were cat, and many more con- 
templated. The Johnston family, who Bettled around 
the Gate, onl a ditcb about one mile long in the 
Spring of L851, from the north fork of Jackson to 
the gulch below the Kennedy mill. Tins is said to 
have been, at the time, the longest ditch in the 
county. The mosl important system of ditches in 
the vicinity of Jackson was inaugurated by Horace 

Killiani and his associates. The following able 

am unit of them is furnished by MEr. H. L. Loveridge, 

who has been connected with them from their 
inception to the present time: — 

K II. II AM DITCHES. 

The first ditch constructed in the neighborhood 
of Jackson was for the conveyance of water to the 
placer mines in the vicinity .of Hunt's gulch, Mur- 
phy's gulch and ridge, and Butte City, and was 
surveyed by two brothers by the name of Watkins, 
in the Fall of 1851, the head of the ditch beginning 
at a point some three and a half miles above the 
town of Jackson, on the south fork of Jackson creek. 
After the filing of a claim to the right of way, and 
the completion of the survey of the ditch, the con- 
struction work was deferred till the Spring of 1852, 
at which time Horace Kilham, William Lewis, 

Thomas Campbell, and Merrill, purchased the 

interests of the Watkins brothers to the right of way 
for the ditch, as well as the right to diversion of 
the waters of the creek for its supply; and they at 
once commenced the work of construction, doing 
the principal portion of the labor themselves, com- 
pleting the ditch to the immediate vicinity of Scotts- 
ville, about the 20th of November of that year 
which, by the ditch line, was seven miles in length, 
with an outlay, besides their own labor, of two 
thousand dollars, the most of the money being- 
expended in the construction of flumes. 

During the "Winter and Spring of 1852, Kilham, 
Lewis and Merrill appropriated the most of their 
share of the water supply in mining in Kentuck and 
Rich gulches, located north and west of Gold hill, 
while Campbell sold his portion of the water to the 
miners about Scottsville and Butte City, the ditch 
being completed to the latter-mentioned locality in 
January, 1853. During the Spring of the same year 
a branch ditch was constructed to Murphy's gulch 
and ridge, where the owners of good paying claims 
were anxiously awaiting the coming of the much- 
needed water. The price charged for water during 
the first season of its introduction, was one dollar per 
inch per day. 

Late in the Spring of 1853 Campbell and Lewis 
sold their interests in the ditch to Kilham and Mer- 
rill, and returned -to their homes in the East, while 
Kilham and Merrill remained to reap a rich harvest 
of gold in their sales of water, which averaged, dur- 
ing the full water supply of eight months each season, 
for two years, five thousand dollars per month. In 
the Spring of 1855 Merrill returned to his old home 
in Wisconsin, in company with Braxton Davenport, 



a prominent miner of Scottsville, to whom Merrill 
sold his interest, in the ditch property. D.ivenport 
soon returned, and after a brief period disposed of 
his one-half interest in the ditch to Kilham. 

One ditch being inadequate to supply the exten- 
sive mining region covered by its construction, a 
second ditch from Jackson creek, covering the same 
territory of mineral wealth, with an additional alti- 
tude of thirty feet, was soon considered to be a 
remunerative investment, and early in the Spring of 

1853 Major Cunningham, W. V. Clark, and Mun- 

son, commenced the construction of a ditch, with its 
head on the south fork of Jackson creek, about a 
mile and a half above the Kilham ditch, and on the 
middle fork, six miles above the town of Jackson; 
and pushing their work ahead with all possible speed, 
their ditch reached completion in May of that year. 
East of Tunnel hill, in the Alpi ranch, a spacious 
distributing reservoir was built, which has ever 
proved a most valuable water depository in connec- 
tion with the water supply of Butte basin and its 
surrounding country. From this reservoir to the 
point where the ditch heads on the south fork, the 
distance is seven miles, and from the head of the 
middle fork branch, fifteen miles; the cost of con- 
struction, not including the labor of its proprietors, 
was six thousand dollars. After the completion of 
this enterprise, water was sold at seventy-five cents 
per inch. 

In the Fall of 1855 Mr. Kilham bought the Cun- 
ningham (so called) ditch property, and its retiring 
owners entered into the pursuit of mining — Cunning- 
ham and Munson remaining in the vicinity of Butte 
City for a couple of years, following their avocation 
successfully, while Mr. Clark became a mining pro- 
prietor in a wealthy mineral district of West Point, 
Calaveras county, where, we believe, he still resides. 
Cunningham and Munson left Butte City in the 
Spring of 1857, and became interested soon there- 
after in some extensive mining projects in Placer 
county. 

Soon after Mr. Kilham assumed the sole proprie- 
torship of both of the Jackson creek ditches, he 
became involved in a lawsuit with a party on both 
the middle and south forks, in consequence of the 
attempt of some miners to divert the waters from 
the creeks above the head of his ditches to neigh- 
boring mining localities, from which places the water 
would flow into the streams below where he could 
utilize it; and after a protracted siege of litigation, 
Kilham beat hi3 water contestants, since which time 
no trouble of a similar character that is worthy of 
note has occurred. 

And now, in order to make an intelligible connec- 
tion with all these ditch interests, it becomes neces- 
sary to digress a little for the moment and chronicle 
the addition of a new ditch enterprise — the Butte 
ditch — stretching its lengthy and rugged line twenty 
miles above Tunnel hill, where it was fed by the 
cold, crystal waters of the north fork of the Mokel- 



CANALS. 



263 



umne river. This work was commenced in the 
Spring of 1856, and finished late in the Fall of the 
same year, at a cost of one hundred thousand dol- 
lars. The main trunk of the ditch was capable of 
conveying seven hundred inches of water, Avhilc 
its lateral branches were constructed to carry a 
sufficient quantity to accommodate the demands of 
the several mining sections which they supplied. 
Slabtown and Iowa Flat, hitherto "without water 
facilities for mining purposes, were, by this ditch, 
favored with an ample supply, and during the few 
years that these placers lasted, the water sales were 
a handsome income to the ditch company. The 
uniform price established for water was fifty cents 
per inch. 

In the Spring of 1858, after six years of almost 
uninterrupted prosperity in the sales of water, Mr. 
Kilham sold all his ditch interests to the Butte Ditch 
Company for twenty-two thousand dollars, the sale 
including an orchard and vineyard belonging to the 
property, which was soon thereafter sold by its late 
purchasers to Dr. Samuel Page and Peter A. Martin 
for two thousand dollars. The price of water from 
the creek ditches was at this time dropped from 
seventy-five to forty cents per inch. 

During the Summer of 1858, a suspension flume 
was constructed from a point half a mile west of C. 
J. Euffner's residence to the north end of Tunnel 
hill, a distance of thirty-three hundred feet, and 
which was, at its highest point from the surface of 
the ground, one hundred and eighty feet. The flume 
was built by Conrad & Holt for fifteen thousand dol- 
lars, and was not entirely a success to its contractors; 
for they warranted the structure to stand for one year 
from the date of completion, and a portion of it broke 
down before the expiration of the year, and the 
burden of rebuilding fell upon its contractors. The 
flume was repaired in the Spring of 1860, and stood 
till November, 1863, when it was entirely thrown 
down by a heavy wind-storm then prevailing. In 
consequence of the heavy expense incurred in bring- 
ing the water on Tunnel hill, the price established 
was fifty cents per inch — ten cents more than for 
other sections. In the year of 1861, water for dig- 
gings other than Tunnel hill, was reduced to thirty 
cents per inch, and two years thereafter to twenty- 
five cents per inch. About this time the company 
became financially embarrassed, and the two mort- 
gages hanging over the property had to be paid, 
when three members of the company, Isaac Tripp, 
William Stickle, and A. M. Harris, who held the 
second mortgage, paid the first one and took the 
property. In the Fall of 1864, C. D. Home pur- 
chased a fourth interest in the property, and at once 
became its active manager. In the Spring of 1866, 
water was again conducted to Tunnel hill by an 
eleven-inch iron pipe, but the sales of water there 
did not justify the expense incurred in conducting the 
water where the paying portion of the hill had 
before become so nearly exhausted. 



In February, 1870, the river ditch was sold to the 
Amador Canal Company for twenty thousand dollars 
— the creek ditches not being included in the sale. 
The purchase of the Butte ditch by the canal com- 
pany was no doubt for the object of securing the 
w r ater-right of the former, as no portion of the old 
river ditch has ever been used by the canal company. 

In a financial point of view, the Butte ditch was a. 
failure, for it never paid one-fourth the cost of its 
construction, for its water market was too limited to 
warrant the expensive outlay of its building. But 
the Kilham ditches always proved a source of remun- 
erative profit to their owners. For several years 
past the lower creek ditch has not been in use, as the 
upper ditch is of sufficient capacity (five hundred 
inches) to furnish the needed water supply along its 
entire line — the water being used for mining and 
irrigating purposes. The price of water for several 
years past has been for the irrigation of alfalfa, 
twelve and a h-alf cents, and for trees and vegetables, 
twenty cents per inch, while for mining the price 
varies from four to ten cents per inch, according to 
the quantity used. 

The ownership of the entire ditch interests have, 
within the past few years, passed into the hands of 
Mr. C. D. Home, under whose superintendence the 
property has been managed since his first connection 
with the ditch. 

THE HAM DITCH. 

This canal, so called from the name of the con- 
structor, the most costly and extensive, as well as 
unprofitable, of all the water projects inaugurated in 
Amador county, was surveyed in 1852 by Alon/.o Piatt 

and Hubbard. The intention was to supply all 

the middle and western portion of the county with 
water, at all seasons of the year, and lumber as well, 
for it was to be a flume, four feet wide at the bottom 
and five at the top, and three feet deep, with gradi- 
ents and curves that should permit the floating of 
lumber of any dimensions likely to be required in the 
mines. The project involved the building of several 
mills at the different branches of the north fork of the 
Mokelumne river. The first mill was put up on Mill 
creek, and the work inaugui-ated in 1854. The mill, 
a water-power, was a splendid piece of mechanism, 
running a sash saw, two hundred and fifty strokes a 
minute, cutting twenty-three thousand feet a day. 
In 1853 J. C. Ham took the contract to build eleven 
and a half miles of flume, at the following rates: 
Earth grading, fifty cents per yard; hard-pan, two 
dollars per yard; rock, five dollars per yard; lumber, 
eighty dollars per thousand; nails, twenty-five dol- 
lars per hundred weight. 

The mill was constructed with edger and mortising 
saws, so that the entire work, except laying the 
flume, was done by the machinery. By these appli- 
ances eleven thousand feet could be put into the 
flume every day, a quarter of a mile being laid on 
a wager in five hours and a half. This mill was 
burned up in 1856, by a fire set to burn the slabs 



264 



IIISTOI5Y OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



and other trash whiob bad accumulated around the 
mill. Wilier was carried to A.queduc1 City, across 
the divide, in L856. Muob of the grading had been 
pai l for in Bcrip, which entitled the bolder to a pre- 
ferred righl to water when the flume should bo 
finished. When the work was finished, the cost was 
estimated al threa hundred and forty four thousand 
dollars. .Mill creek proving insufficient to supply 
the Hume, the water failing in the Summer, an 
extension was determined on. To complete this 
extension the property was mortgaged to James 
Birch, for twenty-five thousand dollars. Being 
unable to pay this, the property was mortgaged to 
.1. Mora Moss & Co., for fifty thousand dollars, the 
payment of the Birch lion with the accrued interest 
being effected in this way. The interest of the last 
named mortgage was fixed at one and one-half per 
cent, per month. The property eventually fell into 
the hands of Pioche, Bayurque & Co., who were said 
to bo handling the money of Louis Napoleon. The 
project was disastrous to every one investing in it. 
The water scrip, or certificates for work done, pay- 
able in water on the completion of the ditch, were 
not recognized by the last owners. The flume was 
not capable of carrying lumber to any extent, and 
damages and breaks by storms, failure of the mines, 
cost of necessary lateral branches, with expensive, 
perhaps extravagant management, soon bankrupted 
the company, and a few years since the property 
was purchased by Chas. McLaughlin of San Fran 
cisco, for a few thousand dollars, or less than five 
per cent, of the original cost, which must have been 
near five hundred thousand dollars. The country 
at large derived some benefit from the distribution 
of water, which, however, was sold at high rates, 
being fifty cents an inch outlet, under six inches 
pressure. None of the originators made anything 
out of the affair. J. C. Ham, now an old man, who 
put such a portion of his active life as well as twenty- 
five thousand dollars in cash into the project, is 
comparatively poor, though still full of gigantic 
plans for utilizing the lumber forest of the Sierras. 

THE AMADOR AND SUTTER DITCH 

Was surveyed in the Spring of 1853, by Emanuel 
Wise and the Howard brothers, Lyman, Jerry, and 
-Martin. The water was taken out of Sutter creek 
about four miles below Volcano, and carried to the 
towns of Sutter and Amador. The cost was about 
twenty-two thousand dollars. It did not prove a 
profitable investment, and was afterwards sold to a 
company of Italians for six thousand dollars, who 
got their money back in the first run of six months. 
The Keystone mining company now own it. 

THE WILLOW SPRING DITCH. 

Surveying commenced in 1851. The ground was 
broken the following year. The original proprietors 
were A. Wood, J. Riddle, John Cursner, Joe Jack- 
son, Fitzgeral and others, twenty in all, most of the 
proprietors being engaged in the work. The cost 



was estimated at forty thousand dollars, but it 
swelled to eighty thousand dollars before completion. 
It look the water from the south fork of the Cosum- 
ncs and distributed it through the north-western 
part of the county, including the camps of Plymouth, 
Forest Home, Puckerville, Arkansas diggings, etc. 
Porter, who was afterwards murdered and robbed 
while engaged in his duties, was made superintendent. 
Though managed economically the property did 
not pay according to expectations, and in 1854 it was 
sold to William Ritter and John O'Brien, for about 
twenty thousand dollars, who enlarged the channel 
and extended it to the middle fork of thoCosumnes, at 
a cost of twenty-four thousand dollars more. In 
June, 1872, the property was purchased by Alvinza 
Hay ward & Co., for eighteen thousand dollars. Tbe 
channel was enlarged to three feet on the bottom, 
five at the top, with a depth of three feet. Grades 
and curves were arranged with reference to floating 
lumber and mining timbers, for which purpose it 
proved well adapted, millions of feet having been 
successfully sent through to the works at Plj-mouth. 

FLOATING LUMBER. 

Thus after twenty years of experiment a part of 
the hopes of ditch projectors of carrying lumber 
was realized. 

As this was the first successful operation of the 
kind in the county a few words as to the former 
expectations and failures may be permissible. The 
carrying of freight in artificial rivers is as old as the 
age of man. It is most successful in moderately 
level countries. The first great project of the kind 
in the United States was the Clinton ditch (as it was 
called by Thomas Jefferson, who was unsparing in 
his ridicule of it), which was projected three-quar- 
ters of a century since by the New York settlers 
from Holland, where they had been accustomed to see 
artificial rivers made the channels of a national com- 
merce. But Holland is a flat country. New York, 
though not flat, is by no means a Sierra Nevada- 
The canal meanders through valleys and occasionally 
along a gentle slope, and when an aqueduct, as at 
Little Falls, Rochester, or Lockport is required, it 
is constructed of granite in a substantial manner, and 
: even then a break will sometimes occur which neces- 
i sitates costly repairs. Let one, who has seen the 
i successful artificial water channels, pass along the 
; line of a ditch in the Sierras, and compare the 
scarcely-flowing stream with only three or four 
inches grade to the mile, through a comparatively 
level country, with a stream in the Sierra Nevadas, 
diverted from its channel and carried around sharp 
ledges of rock, across ravines a hundred feet deep on 
a slender tressle work, winding its way until a dizzy 
height of hundreds of feet is attained, and tbe 
absurdity of trying to make it a channel for trans- 
portation will be apparent. The canal, to be suc- 
cessful as a supply of water, must have as much full 
as is possible without washing the banks. A stick 
of timber turned crosswise in the ditch would, in 




:. -■;.' " /W 



JAMES LCSSLEY. 






CANALS. 



265 



five minutes, cause an overflow that might wash 
away a quarter of a mile of ditch, where digging a 
new channel on the grade was nearly impossible. 
The slight manner in which many of the ditches 
were constructed was the cause of many failures. It 
is even now no unusual thing to see a flume of a 
capacity of several hundred inches, standing on one 
leg away up on the side of a mountain, in such a 
precarious situation that a man with a family 
depending on him for support would have no right to 
walk over the shaky concern. The utility of ditches 
as a means of transportation is undoubted, and suc- 
cess will result from numberless trials and failures. 
Eno-ineerino; will overcome the difficulties, and the 
Sierras will be induced to give up their treasures of 
sugar and other pines without the weary dragging 
through the dusty roads, now incident to the lumber 
trade. 

NOVEL PASSENGER BOAT. 

While the Ham flume was building it was pro- 
posed to carry passengers up as well as down by 
means of the stream. The passengers could, of 
course, float comfortably down in a boat. To get up 
stream was provided for. A car, running on a track, 
which was to be laid on the sides of the flume, was 
to have paddle wheels at each end, which, turned 
by the water, would turn the car wheels, attached to 
the same axle, and thus propel the carriage up the 
stream. The model was tried, but no reporters being- 
permitted to witness the experiment, the result can 
only be conjectured. 

To return to the Plymouth or Willow Spring ditch. 
It was extended to Irish hill in the western part of 
the county, to work some gravel beds on the Arroyo 
Seco grant. 

THE EMPIRE DITCH 

Was constructed by George and Eichard Withington, 
Charles Hutz, Samuel Ewing, Perrin and Crowell, 
taking water out of Sutter creek, about one mile 
below the town of Sutter Creek, distributing it 
around the country between Dry creek and Sutter 
creek, including the diggings around Muletown and 
vicinity. This eventually became consolidated with 
the Amanor canal, owned by the Johnstons. 

THE AMADOR DITCH, 

Said to be the first ditch of any length con- 
structed in the county, was made to take water from 
Sutter creek to the placers in the vicinity of lone. 
It was thirteen miles in length, and cost about twenty 
thousand dollars. 

THE BUENA VISTA DITCH 

Also was supplied by water taken out of Sutter creek. 

This was surveyed by Munger, and built by J. 

Foot Turner, about 1856, at a cost of eighteen thou- 
sand dollars. The main ditch was fifteen miles in 
length, and carried the water to the rich placers dis- 
covered between Buena Bista and lone, about 1854 
and 1855. Extensions were made to Chaney hill, 
also to Lincoln gulch, at a cost of several thousand 
34 



dollars, which, however, did not prove remunerative. 
Water at first was sold for twenty-five cents an inch, 
but as the better claims were worked out, it was 
reduced to ten cents. The property was generally 
remunerative. 

A few years since it passed into the hands of some 
Italians, at a valuation of some fifteen hundred 
dollars. 

THE LANCHA PLANA DITCH 

Took water from Jackson creek, carrying it across 
the dividing ridge near Waters' ranch. It supplied 
Camp Opera, French Camp, Steven's gulch and China 
gulch, and was also extended to the hills in the 
vicinity of Putt's bar. The entire length was about 
thirty miles, costing about thirty thousand dollars. 
Walker, Proctor and Lancaster were the builders. 
When it was built water was sold at fifty cents per 
inch. This was one of the few ditches which 
proved remunerative. 

THE NIGGER DITCH 

Was built by a colored man, who had made several 
thousand dollars as a rag pieker. It took water from 
Stony creek to the Buena Vista placers. It was 
about eight miles in length, and has long been 
abandoned. 

POVERTY-BAR DITCH 

Was mostly on the south side of the Mokelumne 
river, in Calaveras county. A branch, by means of a 
suspension flume ninety feet high, was carried across 
the river into Amador county near the famous Butler 
claim. The whole work cost ninety thousand dol- 
lars, and was built by McNeely, Davis, Morrow and 
MeCarty, in 1857. The branch into Amador county 
came into competition with the Proctor and Walker 
ditch, and caused a reduction of the price of water. 

THE VOLCANO DITCH 

Was projected in 1855, by George Monkton, B. F. 
Wheeler, James T. Farley, J. C. Shipman, M. W. 
Gordon, William Eoberts, and W. A. Eliason, the 
latter person acting as the engineer. It connected 
Volcano with the head-waters of Panther and Ti°-er 
creeks and Mokelumne river, and had the greatest 
altitude of any of the canals in the county. The 
work was commenced in 1855, and completed the fol- 
lowing year. The cost was estimated at one hundred 
thousand dollars, the length being thirty-six miles. 
It was proposed to pay for the construction one- 
third cash, one-third notes, and one-third water scrip, 
or paid-up certificates, calling for water when the 
work was completed. The ditch ran over loose 
gravel a great deal of the way; the water supply 
was not equal to the expectation, and the company 
got involved. They borrowed ten thousand dollars 
of Charles D. Home at ten per cent, per month, ex- 
pecting to be able to pay it in a short time, but the 
mortgage took the ditch. Dr. E. B. Harris also 
loaned the company some ten thousand dollars, but 
it was not so well secured, to him at least, and the 
money stayed loaned, Four or five years after it 



266 



HISTOID OF W1ADOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



passed into the po rq Pioohe and 

within the last Pew years was transferred to Charles 
McLaughlin, with the Ham ditch and other property, 
for a consideration of twenty five thousand dollars. 
The tir-t co8l of the property so conveyed is esti- 
mated as follows : Jack so n ditch, torn- hundred thou- 
Band dollars; Open Cu1 flume, ninety thousand dol- 
lars; Volcano ditch, one hundred and forty thousand 
dollars, tot a I. six hundred and thirty thousand dollars. 
The water scrip was not recognized by the subse- 
quent owners of the ditch, and the notes given by 
the company were worthless after the property, 
had passed OUt of their hands, and the whole matter 
of building and running it was the source of 
much dissatisfaction. The water-rights conveyed by 
the sale of these ditches to McLaughlin are immense 
and may seriously affect, perhaps jeopardize, the 
prosperity of the community. 

COSUMNES WATER COMPANY. 

The ditch belonging to this company was com- 
menced in 1852, by Samuel Loree and twenty others. 
They brought water into Piddletown from the south 
fork of the Cosumnes in 1853, the length of the ditch 
being about forty-five miles, costing forty-five thou- 
sand dollars. The ground over which the ditch ran 
was very favorable for the construction, but some 
bad management involved the company in debt. The 
lumber for the flumes was sawed at the forks of the 
Cosumnes, so far away from the work that the haul- 
ing cost two hundred dollars per thousand feet. The 
company borrowed money at ten percent, per month, 
which soon took the property. The ditch passed 
into the hands of C. A. Purinton, who still owns it. 
A branch from Dry creek, called the Eagle ditch, 
running to Quartz mountain and the Gover mines, 
costing about seven thousand dollars, was added after 
Purinton's purchase of the property. Water, for- 
merly sold for thirty cents, is now sold at eight cents 
per inch, with a probability of further reduction. 
This ditch, running through an agricultural country, 
is being used to irrigate orchards and vineyards, and 
offers great inducements for improvements in that 
lecality. 

THE AMADOR CANAL. 

The enterprise of the present Amador Canal and 

Mining Company was inaugurated by Bowman 

and others about the year 1870, under the name of 
the Sutter Canal and Mining Company, by the pur- 
chase of the water-right of the old Butte Ditch Com- 
pany, which right controlled a large proportion of 
the waters of the north or main fork of the Mokel- 
umne river. 

These parties nearly completed the construction of 
the canal from its lower terminus near the town of 
Sutter Creek to the vicinity of Bald Rock— a distance 
of over thirty miles— when, on account of financial 
embarrassment, the work was suspended. 

The property subsequently went into the hands of 
a receiver, and was purchased by the present com- 
pany in the year 1873. 



The construction of the unfinished portion of the 
works was commenced in October of the same year; 
and being to a considerable extent through solid 
rock, although pushed vigorously, it required nearly 
a year for its completion. In the Fall of 1874 the 
water through it was first applied as a motive power 
for the mills and mines of the county; from that 
date it has formed a very important feature in quartz 
mining. Owing to its cheapness and its superiority 
as a motive power, much low-grade ore has been 
worked, which, under the expensive method of work- 
ing by steam-power, would have still remained in 
the earth. 

The surveyor under whose direction the work was 
laid out, was the late W. L. McKimm, of Jackson. 
The length of the main ditch is forty-five miles; size, 
six and a half feet on the bottom, nine on the top, 
and three feet deep; grade about eight feet to the 
mile. The velocity of the water is about two miles 
per hour. The distributing ditches aggregate about 
one hundred miles. 

The ditch and its branches reach nearly every por- 
tion of the county where water is likely to be needed 
for mining or agricultural purposes, including in 
their course Clinton, Irishtown, Sutter Creek, Ama- 
dor City, Jackson, Butte City, Rancheria, New 
Chicago, Drytown, and lone. The towns of Sutter 
Creek, Jackson and Amador are supplied with the 
water for domestic and other purposes. The eleva- 
tion of the canal at the head is about nineteen hun- 
dred feet above the sea level, which leaves it with an 
elevation sufficient to drive the heaviest machinery 
at all the towns along the lines of extension. The 
storage capacity is about six billion of gallons. The 
capital invested is about six hnndred thousand dol- 
lars. The present price of water is twenty cents per 
miners' inch. 

The project has been managed with the Avisdom of 
thirty years' experience. It was built with labor at 
reasonable rates; has no extraordinary expenses, 
and the proprietors have no expectation of extra- 
ordinary profits. It may be considered as the 
inauguration of a new epoch in Amador county, 
which will witness an increased production in min- 
eral, mechanical and agricultural industries. 

The present officers are J. S. Emery, president; B. 
N. Van Brunt, secretary; H. H. Towns, general 
superintendent. 

In reading this account of the ditches of Amador 
county, one will be struck with their generally 
unprofitable character as a financial investment. A 
few short ditches were extremely profitable, making 
their owners comfortable fortunes in a few years. 
This was especially true of the Kilham ditches, 
which from the start were managed with discretion. 
The small ditch running into Fiddletown (Oleta) paid 
its owners, in early days, one thousand dollars per 
month during the mining season; so of other short 
ditches in many places. Expensive flumes, which 
rotted down in two or three years; slides and wash- 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



267 



outs, and constantly decreasing market for the water, 
caused some of the ditches to be abandoned soon 
after their construction. The hope that was enter- 
tained, that they would be serviceable for agriculture, 
has not been realized. The long trestle-work on 
which they were built, which is now superceded by 
iron pipes; the high grades, sometimes twenty feet 
to the mile, causing a rapid flow and great wearing 
of the banks; and the location of ditches in other 
agricultural sections, has prevented those first con- 
structed from being utilized by the farmers. 

The following list of ditches, published in 1861. 
when placer mining was in its zenith, will be inter- 
esting as mentioning many ditches then in active use 
but now abandoned and forgotten: — 

AMADOR COUNTY. 



Name of Ditch. 



Source of Water. £■• Cost. 



Amador 

Amador County Canal . . 

Boyle 

Buckeye 

Buena Vista 

Butte Canal 

Consuumes Water Co 

Dry Crei'k 

Indian Gulch 

Indian Gulch 

Kellum Ditches (3) 

Lancha Plana 

Lorce's ..." 

Meuks 

Mile Gulch 

Open Cut Flum : 

Pardee's 

Purinton's 

Phelps & Co 

Pigeon Creek 

Potosi 

Proctor, Walker & Co 

Reichling & Alt (2) 

Richtmyer 

Rich & Co 

Ritter 

Sutler Cr^ek and Volcano, 
Volcano 



Sutter Creek 

Mokelumne River 



Sutter Creek. . . . 

Sutter Creek 

Mokelumne River 
Cosumnes River. 

Dry Creek 

Jackson Creek . . . 
Rancheria Creek . 
Jackson Creek . . . 
Jackson Creek . . 
Rancheria Creek . 
Jackson Creek . . . 
Rancheria Creek . 

Sutter Creek 

Jackson Creek . . 
Sutter Creek. . . . . 

Dry Creek 

Cosumnes River, 

Dry Creek 

Jackson Creek . . 

Sutter Creek 

Dry Creek 

Big Bar Canon . , . 
Cosumnes River. 

Sutter Creek 

Mokelumne R. trib 



25 



■i?20,000 

400,000 

3,500 

3,000 

18,000 
125,000 

40,000 
6,000 

10,000 
2,000 

22,000 

30,000 
2,000 
1,500 
2,000 

90,000 



15,000 

6,000 

8,000 

2,500 

16,000 

10,000 

10,000 

4,000 

150,000 

18,000 

140,000 



Name of Owner, 



J. Johnston & Bros. 
P'oche & Bayerque. 
James Mehan. 
White & Co. 
J. Foote Turner. 
Butte Canal Co. 
C. A. Purinton. 
Davis & Co. 
W. L. McKimm. 
Duell & Co. 
Butte Canal Co. 
Proctor & Bowdon. 
Samuel Loree. 
Meeks & Sons. 
N. Parsons. 
Pioche & Bayerque. 



Reuben Fry, Agent. 
Phelps & Co. 
Simpson & Co. 
Hinkston & Glover. 
Walker & Lancaster. 
Reichling & Alt. 
B. F. Richtmyer. 
Rich & Co. 
Est. of Wm. Ritter. 
J. E. Warner. 
Pioche & Bayerque. 



The water-rights are likely to be a source of liti- 
gation in the future. It is an open question whether 
the old riparian customs should not be restored, and 
the right to divert a stream from its course be rele- 
gated to the eminent domain from which it has been 
wrenched by the temporary necessities born of min- 
ing interests. A water monopoly is not less detri- 
mental to a country than a land monopoly, especially 
in a rainless climate requiring artificial irrigation to 
insure the maturity of fruits and grains. 



CHAPTEE XLI. 

PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

First School in the State — School System — First School Report 
— First County Superintendent — School-book War — School 
Census in 18o3 by Districts— School Statistics — Condition 
of Schools in 1S71 — Tribute to School-teachers. 

Provisions for public schools were made at the 
first session of the Legislature, in 1849. Five hun- 
dred thousand acres of land, which had been donated 
by Congress for this purpose, was to be used so as to 
make a perpetual fund, with a proviso, however, that 
it might be used for other purposes "if the public 
exigencies required." This produced an animated 



debate, it being justly considered that " public exi- 
gencies " was rather an indefinite term, and would 
be found to endanger the existence of a school fund. 
The proviso was striken out by a majority of one 
vote. It was made essential to have a three months' 
school in each year, in order to have a portion of the 
public fund. Mr. Semple of Sonoma seems to have 
had the clearest ideas of the necessary details. The 
effort to organize a general fund sacred to public 
schools was opposed by William M. Gwin and Gen- 
eral H. W. Halleck, and conditions were actually 
imposed on the formation of a fund which resulted 
in the sale and loss of fifty thousand acres of the 
school lands before the matter was placed on a secure 
basis. It was thought by many that these school 
lands, some of which were located in the mines, 
would furnish a revenue sufficiently large to run 
the whole State government. 

THE FIRST FREE SCHOOL IN THE STATE 

Was organized in San Francisco, April 2, 1850. 
Small schools were established in the mining towns 
in many places. The writer recollects of seeing in 
Placerville, in 1851, a class of half a dozen being 
taught by a carpenter in his shop, in the intervals of 
nailing together rockers and long-toms. The school 
lands seemed to benefit the State very little during 
the first years, the system of surveys being so bung- 
ling and impracticable that it was difficult to organ- 
ize the fund out of the sales. 

THE FIRST SCHOOL REPORT. 

Was published in 1852, by John G. Marvin. He 
recommended several important changes in the 
school law, among others, that a tax of five cents 
should be levied on each hundred dollars; that the 
office of County Superintendent should be created; 
that provision should be made for school libraries, 
and that the proceeds of the swamp and overflowed 
lands be applied to the school fund. He estimated 
the value of the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections, 
and the five hundred thousand acres, (special grant,) 
to be worth eight million dollars. In his report is 
the first intimation of the condition and number of 
the children in Calaveras county. He estimates the 
number of children at one hundred, and no school, 
El Dorado county being in the same condition. 

In the second annual report, 1852, the number 
of public schools in the whole State was said to be 
only twenty; that the sales of land had produced 
a fund of three hundred thousand dollars; that the 
number of children in the State, between four and 
eighteen years, was seventeen thousand eight hun- 
dred and twenty-one, three thousand three hundred 
and fourteen attending school. He recommended 
that the county Assessors be made, ex officio, County 
Superintendents; that no Catholic schools be allowed 
any portion of the public fund. In 1852, the sales 
of land belonging to the school fund amounted to 
three hundred thousand dollars. 

In 1853, the Legislature enacted that the school 
fund should not be used for any other purpose what- 



268 



[STORY OF LMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



ever; thai religion 
have a pro rata of 
Superintendent wslb 
school commissioners 



1 1 1 < I sectarian schools should not 
ohool fand. The County 
authorized to appoint three 
for eaoh school disl rid . Paul 
K. Eubbs, State Superintendent, recommended that 
the Bohool fund Bhould be apportioned according to 
the cumber of children attending school, instead of 
the census returns. 

In 1854, the Legislature provided thai fifteen per 
cent, of the poll-tax should be paid into the school 
fund. An attempt was made this session to repeal 
the Article prohibiting the granting of money to 
sectarian schools, hut the proposed law did not 
roach a vote. The Superintendent reported the 
number of children attending school as having 
increased from two thousand in 1853, to five thousand 
seven hundred and fifty-one, in 1854; this being the 
first attempt made to get a tabulated statement of 
school matters. 

In 1855, D. R. Ashley introduced about the game 
measures that had been defeated the previous ses- 
sion. This, among other things, provided that no 
sectarian doctrines should be taught in schools 
receiving public money. It also provided that no 
money should be apportioned to any school not 
taught by a regularly examined and licensed teacher. 
It is likely that these stringent provisions forever 
settled the question of maintaining sectarian schools 
out of the public funds. 

In 1856, Paul K. Hubbs recommended that a uni- 
form series of text books be used. This was one 
great step in advance, as previous to this every 
school, in fact every pupil, bad his own text books, 
creating much confusion in all the schools. 

In 1857, Andrew J. Moulder became State Super- 
intendent. The number of schools had now increased 
to four hundred and eighty -six; the number of chil- 
dren, from eleven thousand two hundred and forty- 
two to thirty-five thousand seven hundred and 
twenty-two. He was devoted in his attention to 
the prosperity of the schools, and did much to create 
an interest in the public mind. He strongly rec 
ommended the establishment of a polytechnic school, 
which should be able to turn out practical metallur- 
gists and miners; predicted the immense mining- 
interests to be developed. At this time no surveys 
had been made, and the sixteenth and thirty-sixth 
sections of land were practically useless. 

Schools had been established in 1853 in Yolcano, 
Jackson, Sutter Creek and lone. Mention has been 
made in the township histories of schools in each of 
these places. In the records of the first Court of 
Sessions held in Amador county may be found a 
minute that J. K. Payne was excused from jury duty 
because he was engaged in building a school-house 
at Yolcano. The sight of a child in early days would 
almost draw out a donation for a school. The first 
School Superintendent of Amador county was Dr. J. 
W. Goodin, who was appointed in 1855. Previous 
to this the duties of apportionment had been per- 



formed by Henry Bichelberger, the County Assessor. 
There were many persons who interested themselves 
in schools. In Yolcano were Levi Hanford and wife, 
John Turner, W. EL Jones, and others. Mrs. 
Eanford taught a school in the old Methodist church 
in 1853, as did also Sempronius (Pony) Boyd in 1855. 
S. T. Tackerberry and M. M. Estee, two young men 
then studying law, are also remembered as having 
taught at Yolcano in early days. The latter is now 
a prominent lawyer in San Francisco; the former 
has drifted out of sight. W. T. A. Gibson, now of 
Stockton, was also a teacher there. 

Many dunces as well as able men found their way 
into the school-houses. The Trustees of the districts 
were appointed by the County Superintendent on the 
recommendation of the patrons, the process being a 
virtual election. Sometimes the Trustees were edu- 
cated men, in which case competent teachers would 
be employed. They were also the examiners, and 
were compelled to go through the form of an exam- 
ination, whether the candidate for teacher was a 
graduate of Dartmouth or Yale, or some one whose 
muscles were not adapted to achieving success in the 
mines, and whose moral and mental fibre was still 
weaker. 

A college graduate was required to know the mul- 
tiplication table, also how many pints make one 
quart, or how many inches make one foot, how 
many feet one rod, etc. If he was able to perform 
these mathematical feats he was permitted to teach 
in the public schools for one year, and so also of any 
one who could perform them, whether a collegian or 
not. The utmost latitude was allowed in books, any 
kind or none at all being equally permitted. Some 
were brought across the plains, some " around the 
Horn," and if any preference was shown it was for 
the voice of the majority of .pupils, or rather the 
book that was in the possession of the majority. 
Sanders' readers were, perhaps, the most numerous, 
while grammars and arithmetics were unlimited in 
number. The incompetency of a majority of the 
teachers, the diversity of school-books and the irreg- 
ular attendance of pupils, and rate-bills, all tended 
to render the schools, to a- great extent, failures. 
They merely served as a starting-point for the sys- 
tem, which, under the management of such men as 
Geo. W. Minns, Crawford, Swett, Denman, Campbell, 
present State Superintendent, and others, has devel- 
oped into a wonderful power for good. 

In 1856, the 

FIRST COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT 

Was elected. E. B. Mclntyre was an old school- 
master in the Eastern States, and brought with him 
the notion that the perpetuity of republican institu- 
tions rests on the general intelligence of the people. 
He labored hard to work the system up to a useful 
point, but the indifference of the public, as well as 
the organic defects of the system, were in the way. 
Successful schools are growths of civilization, not 
the results of legal enactments. Not until officers, 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



269 



teachers, parents and pupils have, to some extent, 
been gradually prepared for it, will a complex, 
though finally useful system, be successfully put into 
operation. Mr. Mclntyre reported that he expe- 
rienced great difficulty in getting the Trustees of the 
schools to report to him, although the failure to do 
so compelled him to withhold their pro rata of the 
public money. 

In 1857, Paul K. Hubbs, State Superintendent, 
reported that no such thing as a public school existed 
in the State; that the rate bills and other expenses 
practically excluded many from the schools, and 
urged a greater appropriation, which was done by 
the Legislature of 1858, which not only increased 
the school fund, but authorized the separate districts 
to raise a special school tax on all the property. 
The bill was so carelessly drawn, however, as to 
render it, in many instances, inoperative. 

Andrew J. Moulder was elected State Superintend- 
ent in 1858. He 'was a hard-working, conscientious 
man, and did much to arouse the attention of the 
public to the condition of the schools. 

He made the first able report of the condition of the 
schools. The number of children had now reached 
29,347. He reported that the cost of controlling 
and punishing the criminals had amounted to $754,- 
193.80 in the past five years, while but $284,183.69 
had been expended for school purposes; in other 
words, that the 400 criminals cost three times as 
much to the State as the 30,000 children, each crim- 
inal costing $1,885, each child, $9. He recom- 
mended that each district be required to have six 
months school in the year. 

The total number of children in Amador 

county under eighteen was 2,114 

Between four and eighteen . . _ , . 1,377 

Boys . '763 

Girls 614 

Un der four 737 

Daily average attendance 383 

State funds for the year $2,336 00 

Baised by county taxes 2,550 83 

" " bills and district taxes 5,315 84 



Total expenditure for schools -..$10, 202 67 
Estimated value of school property . $12,825 00 

This is the first account of the schools in the 
county which can be found in print. H. H. Bhees 
was County Superintendent. 

The following list of School Trustees and Teachers 
by Districts, in 1858, will be interesting: — 

Jackson— Trustees, A. C. Brown, John Mushett, 
VV. L. McKimm. Teachers, A. W. Kerr, Mrs. A. W. 
Kerr. 

Ione— Trustees, J. F. Turner, J. H. Stevens, S. 
Love. Teacher, J. A. Peters. 

Pine Grove— J. D. Luttrell, A. Leonard, A. P. 
Clough. Teacher, Miss Dane. 

Drytown— Trustees, D. W. Seaton, B. K. Wick, 
C W. Fox. Teacher, H. P. Hinkson. 



Sutter Creek — Trustees, 1ST. A. Green, W. T. VVild- 
man, A. Hayward. Teacher, E. B. Mclntyre. 

Volcano — Trustees, A. N. Ballard, John Turner, 
S. B. Boardman. Teacher, M. M. Estee. 

Fiddletown (Oleta) — Trustees, John D. Williams, 
D. M. Goff, J. F. Ostrum. Teacher, W. J. Cooper. 

Amador — Trustees, W. S. Porter, D. Barry, P. 
Kusart. 

Buena Vista — Trustees, P. Y. Cool, J. T. Joiner, 
John Kite. 

Jackson Valley — Trustees, Simon Prouty, Joseph 
Lewis, W. H. Amick. 

Union Church — Trustees, B. K. Sexton, A. F. 
Potter. 

Clinton — Trustees, Linus Morgan, Hugh Bobin- 
son, M. Tynan. 

The school system met with many severe attacks, 
and had many battles to win before it could be firmly 
established in a working condition. The ablest 
opponent to the system in the State is now, and 
always has been, Zachary Montgomery, a lawyer, 
residence in Oakland. As a member of the Legisla- 
ture, he fought the common school system and 
opposed its establishment with the same vigor which 
he has since shown. 

In 1861 he introduced a bill providing " That every 
school numbering thirty pupils, established by the 
parents or guardians of such pupils, should have the 
right, on application, to be enrolled as a public school; 
that the common school branches should be taught 
five hours a day, with religious instruction and cate- 
chism as an extra at the will of the parents; that 
the parents or guardians should elect the Trustees of 
such school with full powers to control; and that the 
State fund should be apportioned according to the 
number of children attending school." 

The bill was accompanied by a petition, numer- 
ously signed. The Honorable John Coness defended 
the common school system in a lengthy speech, recit- 
ing a portion of his own experience. The measure 
was defeated. 

The new school laws of 1863 required the use of 
school registers for keeping a record of the daily 
attendance, deportment and progress of the scholars; 
made provisions and appropriations (one hundred 
and fifty dollars) for holding annual county teachers' 
institutes; provided for the annual election of a Trus- 
tee, who should hold office for three years; made new 
provisions for the collection of taxes for building 
school-houses and the maintenance of schools; and 
authorized the issuing of teachers' certificates for a 
term of years. 

The most decided improvement in schools was 
made during the superintendence of John Swett. 
He was a graduate of the common schools, and had 
an abiding faith, not only of their utility in society, 
but as a necessity for a safe foundation for all the 
essentials of a republican form of government. In 
his first annual report, he recommended the raising of 
a sufficient sum by a property tax to support the 



270 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



iooIs free from all rate bills or local taxes, for at 
leasl five monthB in the year. Ee Bbowed thai bul 
twentj Ave per cent of the children in the State 
attended Bohool, and contended that, as the general 
voter bad control of property in revenue matters, a 
portion of it should be taken to prepare bim for 
that responsibility; that, considering the diversified 
oharacter of our population, California needed the 
benefits Of a free BChool more than any State in the 
Union. The Legislature of L864 passed new school 
laws, laying an annual tax of live mills on each one 
hundred dollars of property in the State, and making 
it imperative on the counties to raise enough, in 
addition to the State appropriation, to maintain 
schools live months in the year. 

The bill passed the Assembly without opposition, 
but the famous Zachary Montgomery was in the 
Senate, and there it came near being slaughtered. 
The vote stood: — 

Ayes — Benton, Burncll. Crane, Cunningham, 
Foulke, Hall, Haswell, Kutz, Maddox, McMurtry, 
Moyle, Porter, Roberts, Shepherd, Tuttle, Wright — 
18. 

Noes — Buckley, Dodge, Evans, Freeman, Gaskill, 
Hamilton, Ilawes, Montgomery, Pearee, Eedington, 
Bush, Shafter— 12. 

In 1863, the amount of money expended for 
schools in the whole State, was four hundred and 
eighty thousand dollars; in 1867 the amount of 
annual expenditure reached the sum of one million 
two hundred and eighty-seven thousand dollar's. The 
direct tax on all property throughout the State was 
eight cents on the one hundred dollars, bringing in 
an income of one hundred and twenty thousand 
dollars. 

Many of the Eastern States, Iowa and Illinois, 
had, about the same time as California, provided for 
the general education of the children. A well-to-do 
farmer, a bachelor of course, of the former State, 
became disgusted with the freedom with which the 
Legislature put their hands in his pockets and helped 
themselves to his cash for educational purposes, and 
sold out and left for California, where the people were 
supposed to retain some of the conservative, primi- 
tive virtues of old times. When he came to Cali- 
fornia and found that the same system of robbery 
was in practice here, he gave a terrible howl and 
turned the heads of his flocks and herds towards 
Oregon. The last heard of him he was making with 
all speed towards Alaska, where, it is confidently 
believed, he will not be disturbed by a general 
school-tax for at least ten years. 

In 1S72, the test oath requiring teachers to take 
the oath of allegiance, was repealed. This was, 
perhaps, a matter of unnecessary caution; doing 
very little good or harm, as no case is on record of 
any teachers leaving the profession on account of it. 

In 1867, the State Superintendent reported that 
every school in the State had become free. The 
Legislature had added some new features to the 



chool law. Formerly teachers were examined by 
incompetent men, and, as a consequence, men were 
sometimes admitted to the position of teachers who 
were unfit to have charge of dumb brutes, much less 
human beings. The law now required the County 
Superintendent and also the Board of Examiners to 
hold first-grade certificates. There is always much 
difficulty in executing a law that is much in advance 
of public opinion. There was no exception to the 
rule in this case. The County Superintendents 
bridged over the obstruction, and things went much 
as before, though there was a manifest improvement 
in the qualifications of teachers. 

The system of free schools met with much opposi- 
tion. There is a plausibility, at least, in the princi- 
ples that every man has a right to accumulate and 
hold property; that he is under no obligation to 
educate or support his indolent neighbors' children; 
but in the other side of the scales is the fact that, if 
his neighbors' children are not educated to some use- 
ful purpose, they become criminals and paupers, and 
by their destructive habits endanger not only the 
existence of the property which was denied for edu- 
cational purposes, but even life itself. 

In 1872, Superintendent Bolander recommended 
compulsory education, and declared that illiteracy 
was incipient crime; and quoted Beecber, that, 
" uneducated mind is educated vice.'' Bolander pro- 
posed five hundred dollars as the least sum that 
should be expended in any school district in one year. 

THE SCHOOL-BOOK WAR. 

The law requiring a uniformity of text-books was 
no exception to the average of laws, of which it has 
been said the unlooked for operations constitute the 
principal results. The value of school-books in use 
amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars. A 
small profit on a book in general use, would make a 
fortune for the publishing house, or the firm holding 
the agency. Numerous advocates of each proposed 
work traversed the country proclaiming its merits, 
and even a lobbyist was thought necessary for the 
Legislature. Thousands of dollars were expended 
in getting the books introduced, all of which had to 
be paid for by the consumers or purchasers of the 
books in one way or another. The Sanders series 
of readers had been discarded, and Willson's generally 
adopted. They were well printed, finely illustrated, 
and were a great improvement on anything before 
in use. During the Superintendency of Fitzgerald 
they were cast aside, and the McGuffey series adopted. 
Now came the war. Willson was a northern man, 
and his books were the product of the northern 
system of education. McGuffey was President of 
the Vh'ginia University, and his books were supposed 
to represent the style of southern education. Mc- 
Guffey's series were said to belong to an ancient 
formation, a sort of pliocene stratum, containing only 
fossils of defunct ideas; the engravings were said to 
be old and inferior, having but one commendable 
quality; thei'e were but few in the book. The change, 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



271 



which had cost the parents in the State something 
like two hundred thousand dollars, was brought 
about by the State Teachers' Institute. It was even 
said by the Willson advocates that money had been 
used to obtain the decision in favor of the south- 
ern reader. This insinuation was bruited about by 
the newspapers, and perhaps influenced some in their 
opinions, but the more candid part of the peojfle 
scouted the idea, considering partisan feeling and the 
prejudice of birth amply sufficient to account for any 
apparent injustice or error of judgment, in producing 
the exchange. 

The result was a defeat of Fitzgerald, who was 
much grieved about the matter. The Legislature at 
the next session took the control of text-books away 
from the State Board. The Willson readers were not 
reinstated. The change from Willson's to McGuffey's 
series received the condemnation of the people, yet 
having been introduced, it was considered better to 
retain it than to incur a new expense. 

SCHOOL CENSUS IN 1863, BY DISTRICTS. 

Amador . 82 Lancha Plana 85 

Butte City 49 Mountain Springs 41 

Buena Vista 63 Pine Grove 75 



Buckeye 56 

Clinton 81. 

Drytown 66 

Fiddletown 124 

Forest Home 64 

Franklin 59 

lone City 162 

Jackson 205 

Jackson Vallev.. 51 



Puckerville 52 

Rural 38 

Sutter Creek 133 

Union 101 

Upper Raneheria 43 

Union Church.. 45 

Volcano 109 

Williams 30 

Willow Springs. 61 



Total 1875 

SCHOOL STATISTICS. 







►< 


to 


> 


Z 












w 






o 




Teachers Wages 


State 


County 




4* 


u: 


X 


Expendi- 






Superintendent. 


Superintendent 








~ 


ture. 












OT> 




o 




Male. 


Female. 


John G. Marvin. 




1853 
1854 
1855 
1850 


339 
432 
865 
808 


208 
318 
426 


5 
5 

8 








John G. Marvin . 


H. Eichelberger 
Dr J W Gooding 
E. B. Hdntire. 








Paul K. Hubbs. 








Paul K. Hubbs. 








A. J. Moulder. . 


E. B. Melntire. 
H. H. Rheese . . 
H. H. Rheese.. 
J. H. Bradley . . 


1857 
1858 
1859 
I860 


986 
1 100 
1377 
1591 


523 
5 .,5 
625 

734 


10 
12 
16 
IS 








A. J. Moulder. . 


§10,192.67 






A. J. Moulder. . 






A. J. Moulder. 








A. J. Moulder. . 


Samuel Page. . . 
Samuel P ige. . . 


1861 
1802 
1S03 
1804 


1670 
1738 
1-75 
2365 


802 
975 
995 
1323 


23 
26 

27 
29 








A. J. Moulder. . 




* 65.96 










John Swett 


D. Townsend . . 




$47.00 




D. Townsend . . 


1805 


2074 


1315 


29 


14,592.65 


73.00 


55.00 


John Swett 


S. G. Briggs. . . . 


1860 




1779 




9,816.49 


70.00 


62.00 


John X.-ett 


S. G. Briggs . . . 


1867 




1960 




16,278.68 


70.00 


56.00 


O.P. Fitzgerald. 


S. G. Briggs . . . 


1868 


1003 


1327 




15,889.86 


74.33 


50.25 


O. P. Fitzgerald. 


S. G. Briggs . . . 


1869 


1855 


1322 




15,140.33 


81.13 


51.35 


0. P. Fitzgerald 


S. G. Briggs . . . 


1S70 


1860 


1401 




12,440.46 


81.66 


50.00 


0. P. Fitzgerald . 


S. G. Briggs . . . 


1871 


10*1 


1148 




17,742 51 


81.60 


50.00 


H. N. Bolandcr. 


S. G. Briggs . . . 
S. G. Briggs . . '. 
S. G. Briggs . . . 
W. H. Stowers. 
W. H. Stowers. 
A. Edsinger . . . 
A. Edsinger 


1872 
1873 
1874 
I87S 

1876 

1S77 
1878 


2f97 
2134 




28 
28 


15,576.27 
18,493.10 






H. N. Bolander. 






H. N. Bolander. 






H. N. Bolander. 














E. S. Carr. 














E. S. Carr 














E. S. Carr 


2650 








77.00 


62.00 


E. S. Carr 


L. Miller 


1870 


2733 






35,791.73 


80.00 


55.00 


E. S. Carr 


L. Miller 


18-0 















The total expenditures, from the organization of the county to 1867, in- 
clusive, was $133,873.15. 

CONDITION OF SCHOOLS IN 1871. 

Amador City School. — This district has no re- 
corded date of organization. Its progress has been 



rather slow; its present conditio/! is rather flattering; 
its wants are numerous; no school furniture or 
apparatus, and a poor, dilapidated school-house. 

Aqueduct City School. — This district was organ- 
ized about 1865; has progressed finely as a rural 
district; has a neat little school-house, together with 
some apparatus; house poorly furnished. Its pres- 
ent prospects are hopeful. 

Buckeye Valley School. — This district has been 
unfortunate. Its people were divided on their school 
interests, and the result of their troubles was the 
burning of their school-house, which loss they have 
not yet recovered from, and consequently are not 
in a very flourishing condition. They are in need 
of a house, furniture, and apparatus. 

Buena Vista School. — This district was organ- 
ized in 1857; has a very comfortable school-house, 
some apparatus, very poor furniture, but is in a very 
flourishing condition, notwithstanding. 

Clinton School. — This district is poor. They 
have a neat little school-house, no furniture or 
apparatus, yet it is quite flourishing. 

Drytown School. — This district was organized in 
1853, and, for several years, only maintained a three 
month's school during the year: but the last few 
years they have been able to keep their school open 
seven months in the year. They have a nice school- 
house, costing some eight hundred dollars, some 
furniture, some apparatus, and the school is in a 
better condition than it has ever been. 

Fiddletown School (Oleta). — This is an old dis- 
trict, without date of organization; has an excellent 
school-house, well furnished, with some apparatus, 
and is in a very flourishing condition, under the 
guidance of an efficient teacher. 

Franklin School. — This district is small, situated 
in a very sparsely settled neighborhood; has a small 
school-house, some apparatus, but no furniture. It 
is in rather a state of progression. 

Forest Home School. — This district, like many 
others, has no date of organization. They have a 
respectable school-house, but poorly furnished, yet in 
rather a flourishing condition. 

lone Valley School. — It is situated in a very rich 
and fertile valley which is covered by a Spanish grant, 
which has been very prejudicial to its interests. They 
have a comfortable school-house. The district was 
organized in 1853, is tolerably well supplied with 
apparatus and furniture and is quite flourishing. 

Jackson School. — This district is also without date 
of organization; has a brick school-house, with two 
departments, and has progressed finely; has always 
been under the guidance of able teachers, and is well 
supplied with apparatus and furniture. 

Jackson Valley School. — This district is a small 
one, and labors under the same difficulties as the lone 
Valley, it being on the Spanish grant, also. They 
have a very commodious school-house, tolerably well 
supplied with furniture and apparatus, and is in quite 
a flourishing condition, 



HISTORY OK AMADOU COUNTY, CALIKORNIA. 



Lanoha Plana School. Situated in the Bouth wesl 
portion of the county, and a1 one time a very rich 
mining oarap, bul now in a dilapidated condition, 

: 1 1 1 • 1 consequently the bc! I has Buffered. They 

have ;i shell of ;i bouse in which to impart instruc- 
tion, p • furniture, some apparatus, and, notwith- 
standing ilif disadvantages under wbicb il bas 
labored, its prospects arc quite Battering. 

Mountain Echo School.— This district was organ- 
ized in 1867, and bas progressed slowly. They have 
a good wooden Bchool-house, very little furniture and 
no apparatus. Notwithstanding the many difficulties 
with which tluv are surrounded, they have been able 
to maintain tour or five months' school in the year. 
Their prospects arc quite encouraging. 

Siilligan's School. — This district has no date of 
organization, and is also one of the rural districts. It 
has been able to maintain a four months' school some 
portion of the year. Thej' have quite a comfortable 
little school-house, with very little furniture or appa- 
ratus. 

Mountain Springs School. — This is a small district, 
and has a hard struggle to exist. By perseverance 
they have been able to keep open a school in accord- 
ance with the law. They have a school-house that 
answers the purpose, but need furniture and appa- 
ratus. Their prospects are anything but flattering. 

Xew York Banek School. — This district was organ- 
ized about 1866. They have a very comfortable 
school-house, together with some furniture and appa- 
ratus. It has steadily advanced and its prospects for 
the future are quite flattering. 

Oneida School. — This district was organized in 
1865, with some twenty census children. It now 
numbers some eighty. They have progressed stead- 
ily; have a shell of a house, entirely destitute of fur- 
niture and apparatus. 

Puckerville School. — This is an old district, with- 
out date of organization; has a very commodious 
school-house, well supplied with furniture and appa- 
ratus, and is progressing finely. 

Pine Grove School. — This district is situated on 
the road leading from Volcano to Jackson. They 
have a neat and comfortable school-house, pretty 
well furnished with apparatus and furniture. This 
school has been conducted in the main by able teach- 
ers, and is in a prosperous condition. 

Sutter Creek School. — This district like a number 
of other-, is without date of organization; has had 
l he misfortune of having its school-house burned up, 
hut, nothing discouraged, its friends went to work 
and put up a magnificent two-story, brick building. 
The cost of the house was about six thousand dollars. 
It is well furnished with apparatus and furniture, 
has two hundred and twenty census children, and is 
situated in the richest mining district in the county. 
Its future is truly flattering. 

Stony Creek School. — This is one of the rural dis- 
tricts of the county, and was organized in 1868, with 
small beginnings; but by perseverance they have a 



neat little Bchool bouse, with a moderate supply of 
furniture and apparatus. They have progressed 
beyond expectation. Their prospects are truly 
flattering. 

Union Church and Mulctown School. — These two 
districts have been merged into one, and will be 
known hereafter as the Union District, and is situ- 
ated in one of the prettiest valleys in the county. 
Las1 Spring the friends of education went to work 
and put up a good school-house at a convenient 
center for both districts, and furnished the same 
tolerably well. They are getting along finely now. 

Upper Kancheria School. — This district is also 
without date of organization ; is an old school, but has 
not advanced as it should have done. But few felt 
interested in the education of the children, and con- 
sequently let both the school and the school-house 
run down. Now that it is necessary to have a new 
house, the people are divided, and cannot agree 
where to place it, and consequently their prospects 
are gloomy. 

Volcano School. — This district was organized in 
1855, and prospered finely until about 1861, when 
a state of confusion and strife sprang up, which re- 
sulted in a division of the district. Union district 
was formed out of a portion of its territory, and 
continued in that separate state until last year, when 
they united again and built a fine and commodious 
house that reflects credit upon the Trustees of both 
districts. 

Williams School. — This district is among the oldest 
in the county. Its record shows no date of organi- 
zation. They have a very pleasant school-house, 
with some furniture and a few articles of apparatus. 
They have progressed steadily. Its wants are con- 
siderable in the way of furniture. 

Willow Springs School. — This district, like too 
many others, has been negligent of its records. 
Very little can be learned of its history, other than 
it has had an existence for several years. They 
have a tolerably comfortable school-house, some 
furniture, and need almost everything to conduct a 
school properl}-. 

Washington School. — This district, like a great 
many others, has been quite negligent of duty, the 
record showing no date of organization. They have 
a very neat and comfortable school-house, tolerably 
well supplied with furniture and apparatus. They 
have jtrogressed moderately well. Their prospects 
are encouraging;. 

The foregoing is from the report of the Kev. S. 
Gr. Briggs, County Superintendent from 1866 to 
1875. Though a man of limited education, his 
integrity and devotion to the interests of schools 
enabled him to accomplish a great deal towards 
elevating them to their present high standard. It 
will be seen that the most of the statistics, in the 
table appended, were gathered during his incum- 
bency. He died at the post of duty, beloved by all 
the teachers and pupils in the county. The same 







JE3 



Ifi-.^J-" -K-'-'n-i -ifv-'H' 



RESIDENCE, STORE BRANCH OF CHARLES DOSCH. 

IONE" VALLEY. AMADOR COUNTY, CAL. 




RANCH ^RESIDENCE OF J.C.BLYTHER. 

T0WNSHIP4.AMAD0R COUNTY. CAL. 



ut«,sp/ttp« *»e»; s.r. 



NEWSPAPERS. 



273 



may be said also of W. H. Stowers, who succeeded 
him. 

TRIBUTE TO SCHOOL-TEACHERS. 

The limits of this work will only permit a brief 
reference to some of the devoted teachers, who have 
seen their sun of life rise and go far down the west- 
ern slope in their devotion to the cause of education, 
and of some who have reposed in death for years 
after their work was well done. School-teaching, 
though holding so important a position in social 
economy, is a profession that is little honored. Day 
after day, weeks following weeks, until the youthful, 
vigorous form becomes old and feeble, the teacher 
coins his life into the coming generation, and finally 
sinks unknown and unsung to the grave. No 
plaudits of assembled thousands encourage him; no 
daily papers chronicle his coming in or going out, 
yet silently he fashions the future citizen, perhaps' 
President, weaves his web of human affairs in pov- 
erty and obscurity, often in want, happy to see his 
former pupils performing an honored part in the 
world. 

Many have lived their whole active life in Amador 
county. Among these we may reckon A. W." Kerr 
of Plymouth, who is now teaching the third genera- 
tion; J. P. Gould of Jackson, who thirty years since 
commenced his work, and still holds on. Hiram 
Ford, of Buena Vista, also is well fixed in the groove. 
Some have gone down to premature graves, worn 
out by the terrible nervous exhaustion incident to 
watching and caring for a large school of children- 
Of this number we may reckon Dennis Townsend, 
whose mind gave way under the terrible strain; and 
also William H. Stowers, who gave all of life that 
was in him to children who are now taking places 
in active life. J. C. Gear, also a teacher for years, 
rests in the lone cemetery, not quite forgotten by 
the children, now men and women, whom he led 
up the first low hills of science. Among the women 
we may reckon Mrs. Bartlett of Sutter Creek, Mrs. 
M. B. Church of Drytown, Mrs. Thomas Stewart of 
lone, Miss Augusta Withington, Mrs. Trowbridge 
(deceased) of Jackson, and numerous others who 
have done, and still are doing, good work. All honor 
to them. 



CHAPTER XLII. 

NEWSPAPERS. 

Charles Boynton — Amador Ledger — Dispatch — Union Record — 
Sutter Creek Independent — lone News — Ainador Sentinel. 

The mining towns, with three or four hundred men 
hungry for news, were tempting fields for an ambi- 
tious man. The first institution after the hotel and 
saloon is a printing office. Who has not felt an idea 
in his — well, head, pressing and kicking to get out, 
aching for deliverance, that it might grow and over- 
spread the world, revolutionize governments, and 
correct all things? Men will not try the law without 
35 



study, or mercantile business without some practice, 
or a hotel without sitting around awhile to see how 
things might be run. But there is no measure for 
mental work; no rule of feet and inches, no measure 
of pints and quarts to gauge the product of the mind. 
Though a man may write over acres of paper, square 
measure will not apply; solid or leaded articles defy 
cubic measure and avoirdupois just as well; and, 
finally, though an article may be a drug, apotheca- 
ries weight will not weigh it, and, though it may be 
a golden thought, the jeweler's scales are equally 
powerless. If it is a living, active, vital thought, 
adapted to the wants of man, it will live and flourish; 
it is seed sown on good ground. If it is obsolete; if it 
is the effete matter of a morbid mind, though it is 
embalmed in print, or engraved in stone, naught 
shall save it from oblivion. 

When lofty thoughts thy mind inspire, 
Write; some slumbering soul that reads, 

Touched by sparks of thy celestial fire, 
Shall ripen into glorious deeds. 

Charles Boynton was the father of the newspaper 
in Amador county. Though many recollect him, 
few can give an idea of his character, which seemed 
to be as changeable as a kaleidoscope, now foaming 
over with fun and good nature, now seriously discuss- 
ing political economy; now poring over some old 
volume of forgotten history, and now going for the 
gold in the bed of the Mokelumne with all his might, 
mind and strength, with a woman's emotion and a 
man's power. He was in some way connected with 
the Mokelumne Hill Chronicle; at any rate he had 
sufficient access to the types and press to work off 
several numbers of the Owl, 1853 and '54, which set 
the whole country crazy with its fun, which, however, 
being of a local nature, is now understood only by 
those who remember the incidents referred to. It 
is said that he used to swim the river with the 
edition tied to the top of his head. It is also said 
that he never went over to the Hill without hav- 
ing a fight or two on account of the little paper. 
Soon after the organization of the county he started 
the Sentinel, an independent paper, devoted to no 
party or clique. It was printed for some months 
on the Chronicle press, the edition being so small 
that he carried it all under his arm to Jackson 
to be distributed. He soon after obtained a press of 
his own, and ran the paper successfully for some 
years. O. D Avaline, formerly of Foi't Wayne, Indi- 
ana, became the proprietor of it about 1857 or '58, 
continuing the publication until the great fire of 1862, 
when he abandoned the newspaper business, raised 
a company of soldiers and joined the Union army. 
He died at Folsom of general debility, produced by 
exposure while in the service. 

THE AMADOR LEDGER 

Was started by Thomas H. Springer in Volcano in 
1855, during the boom in that town. It was an 
independent sheet at first, but in 1856, during the 
Fremont, Fillmore and Buchanan campaign, it took 



274 



BISTORT? OF AMADOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Democratic ground, which it maintained until the 
breaking out of tin- war of the Rebellion, when it 
beoame Union Democratic, and finally Republican. 
It was moved from Volcano to Jackson in L857. In 
typographic appearance it was much better than 
the Sentinel, Springer being a first-rate printer. 
Though making no pretensions as a writer, ho had a 
Short, spicy way of dealing out the currenl news. 
lie was. at differenl times, assisted in the editorial 
department by P.C.Johnson, John Bradly, E.T. Ham- 
mand ami others. When Springer was elected State 
Printer, the paper was managed by Grant Springer 
and Shearer, finally falling into the ownership of R. 
M Briggs and .1. A. Eagon, who made it apolitical 
organ. Both were able lawyers, politicians and 
writers. Some very able editorials appeared in it; 
but even a country newspaper requires the undi- 
vided attention of an able man to make it success- 
ful, and they soon tired of publishing it for the 
honor, and sold it in 1875 to Richard Webb, its pres- 
ent proprietor. Mr. Webb wields a sarcastic pen, 
and frequently gets into personal difficulties, and 
occasionally a libel suit, on account of his unsparing 
denunciations; but nothing can change his com*se; 
he returns to the attack with more vim than ever. 
lie was formerly connected with a small semi- 
weekly publication at Sutter Creek, which, on his 
purchase of the Ledger, was discontinued. 

THE AMADOR DISPATCH 

Was originally started in Lancba Plana, by Hecken- 
dorn & Payne. It was a small and badly printed 
sheet, containing mostlj 7 local news. The old roller- 
press on which it was printed was, until a few years 
since, lying in a vacant lot near the town. It was 
enlarged into a sheet of better appearance and pub- 
lished for some months during the boom at that 
town. In 1859 it was purchased by — Mullen, and 
moved to Jackson, and started as a Democratic 
sheet. On the breaking out of the war. the proprie- 
tor sold it to Geo. M. Payne and "Wm. M. Penry (the 
latter gentleman being still proprietor), raised a com- 
pany of soldiers, and went to the aid of the Union. 
The Dispatch immediately took strong Democratic 
ground, attacking the administration at every assail- 
able point, with arguments, sarcasm and ridicule, 
and made itself a power in politics. The famous L. 
P. Hall (Long Primer) was associated for some 
years with Penry in conducting the paper. At the 
time of the assassination of Lincoln it was suppressed 
for several months, and Penry and Hall immured in 
Fort Alcatraz, of which a particular account has 
been given in another portion of our history. Per- 
sonally, Mr. Penry is " as mild a mannered man as 
ever " indicted an editorial, and his serene and kindly 
face gives no indication of the mental fires burning 
below; forming a parallel in this trait to the famous 
Brick Pomeroy, who wields the editorial tomahawk 
and scalping-knife with a fearful effect, without 
ruffling a line or curve in his well-fed face. 



The paper has passed its twenty-first year, and 
bids fair to continue to a good old age. 
UNION RECORD. 

While Penry and Hall were incarcerated in Alca- 
traz. R. M. Briggs took the printing material of the 
Dispatch and published the paper hearing the above 
title, lie let ofl' the accumulated fire-works for a few 
months with considerable noise and effect. Some of 
his editorials on national questions had'wide circula- 
tion in tire East. On Mr. Penry's discharge from con- 
finement, the publication of the Union Record ceased. 

THE SUTTER CREEK INDEPENDENT 

Was a small daily paper published about 1872 by 
R. V. Chadd, formerly of Stockton. It made quite a 
sensation for a while with its local hits and current 
news, but was discontinued for want of support. 
The material was finally purchased by Richard Webb, 
who published a semi-weekly for a short time, merg- 
ing into the Ledjer in 1875. 

THE IONE NEWS 

Was commenced in 1877 by Haley & Co. It was 
continued for about three years and discontinued. 
The make-up of the paper was good and the contents 
well edited, but the county could hardly support four 
papers, and some one must fail, and the publication 
was suspended about the end of November, 1880. 
In 1861 a weekly paper was published at lone for a 
few months by Folger & Co., who afterwards moved 
the concern to Alpine county, where it flourished as 
a political paper for some years. 

THE AMADOR SENTINEL. 

This is probably a namesake of the Sentinel which 
was destroyed by the fire in 1862, though no 
descendant thereof*. It was started in June, 1879, by 
Turner, McNeil & Briggs, but at present is owned by 
Turner & Sanborn, both young men but able writers. 
It is gaining an influence and circulation, having a 
subscription list of something over six hundred. It 
is Republican in politics though liberal in its opinions. 
It is the official paper, and seems to be on a paying 
basis, with a hopeful career before it. 



CHAPTER XL I II. 



SOCIETIES. 

The Society of Free Masons — Modern Masonry — General Ten- 
dency of Masonry — Introduction into the United States — 
Volcano Lodge No. 5b' — Amador Lodge No. 65 — lone Lodge 
No. 80 — Henry Clay Lodge No. 90 — St. Marks Lodge No. 15 

— Drytown Lodge No. 174 — Royal Arch Chapter No. 11 — 
Origin of Odd Fellowship — Encampment — Degree of Re- 
bekah — Volcano Li.dgeNo^o — Sutter Creek Lodge No. 31 — 
Jackson Lodge No. 36 — lone Lodge No. 51 — Telegraph Lodge 
No. 7;l — Lancha Plana Lod^e No. 95 — Plymouth Lodge No. 
£60 — Grand Encampment No. 17 — Marble Encampment No. 
19 — Temperance Societies — Subjects for Insane Asylums — 
Good Ttmplais — Knights of the Red Cross — Blue Riblon 
Society — General Tendency of Temperance Societies — Bur- 
lesque Societies — E-Clampsus Vitus — Hautontimoroumenos 

— Knights of the Assyrian Cross' — Pioneer Societies — Am- 
ador Society of California Pioneers — Sclavonic Illyric 
Mutual Benevolent Soc.ety — Grangers. 

" UNiThD we stand; divided wc fall." Organiza- 
tion is the largest factor in modern civilization. In 
ancient times, in the rude beginnings of society, the 



SOCIETIES. 



275 



family relation was the source of strength and pros- 
perity. The mother who bore the most children 
was the most honored. Perhaps the best illustration 
of the enormous force of family relation may be 
seen in the ancient Israelites, who, holding to 
blood ties, became a great nation, with the full faith 
that they were destined to inherit the earth. But 
great as the Israelites were they were scattered by 
a host of innumerable families united under one gov- 
ernment. Tribal and family organizations give way 
to combinations of still greater magnitude, which 
are made up of innumerable smaller parts, each being 
to some extent a body politic within itself. Individ- 
ual valor, though a source of personal respect, can 
accomplish little compared to the united efforts of 
multitudes. An army is efficient in proportion to its 
discipline. A well-trained army of a few thousands, 
acting under the direction of one mind, will rout a 
mob often times their number. The principle holds 
'good in all the relations of life, whether the object 
be to establish a nation, accumulate wealth, damage 
an enemy, or benefit mankind. The ability to com- 
bine conflicting or inert elements into a solid, active 
body will always hold the highest position in civil- 
ized society. 

The so-called secret societies are the results of 
this instinct. Some of them, if not as ancient as 
any national or religious organization, have their 
origin in the ages of elementary government; have, 
what might be called an umbilical cord, running 
back to the origin of all government. All of them 
serve the important purpose in society of teaching 
authority and obedience, without which law and 
order is impossible. The most vicious member of 
a vicious society, by agreeing to sacrifice some of 
his privileges to better secure the others, becomes 
unconsciously better prepared to obey other laws, 
and eventually becomes a useful member of society; 
while as a member of a higher organization whose 
objects, in part at least, are beneficent towards 
society, he acquires the knowledge of parliamentary 
forms, and the habit of listening deferentially to 
opinions differing from his own. 

Thus we have, as powerful auxiliaries in the 
maintenance of law and order, the numerous socie- 
ties of the age, such as Masons, Odd Fellows, Good 
Templars, and Sons of Temperance, Knights of the 
.Red Cross, etc. The former two of the list, especially, 
have become almost cosmopolitan in character and 
influence, modifying the rancors and cruelties of 
war, and carrying a benign influence into millions 
of places. The secrets, which are made of great 
account in all societies, are a means of attracting 
the public, and holding them together. The mystery 
of the Shekinah held the Israelites together. The 
Greeks had the Adelphos, and Elusinian mysteries. 
The Egyptians had n^-sterits, and, in later times, 
the Druids had a wonderful, valuable mystery in 
their possession. Men, as well as women, love a 
mystery, and are led away by it. 



The society of Free Masons has, probably, the 
best claims to antiquity of any of the beneficiary 
societies of modern times. It is quite certain that 
at least one thousand years ago the builders of 
churches and palaces, who moved about over Europe 
as their services were wanted in the different towns, 
formed themselves into guilds, where each one's 
rank as a builder was fixed by his rank in the 
society. They were accustomed to camp in a body 
under the direction of % the officers. The society was 
not unlike the modern Typographical Union in its 
objects and organization. From the best accounts 
there were several of them in different parts cf 
Europe, but a membership in one made it much 
easier to gain admission to another. In several 
instances the governments manifested considerable 
hostility to the organizations on account of. their 
maintaining extortion rates for work. The terms, 
entered apj)rentice, fellow craft, free and accepted 
Masons, i. e., free to work at the trade, indicate 
beyond doubt the nature and object of the organi- 
zation. 

The signs and secret work enabled the members to 
recognize each other's standing as workmen without 
the trouble of testing the work, and also to assist 
each other in traveling about the country in those 
lawless times, in going from one job to another. 

The changes in the system of building large cathe- 
drals like those of the middle ages in sparsely settled 
countries, the denser populations and greater diffusion 
of knowledge, architectural as well as other kinds, 
obviated the necessity of societies for mutual protec- 
tion, as every city of any note hud an ample number 
of architects and stone-cutters to do all its work. 

The churches or church had, in the first instances, 
rather encouraged the formation of the societies as 
tending to disseminate the knowledge of build- 
ing. In the later years it discouraged the existence 
of the societies as setting up a secret which was 
superior to the confessional, an opposition which it 
still maintains with pei'sistent action. 

In the beginning of the seventeenth century the 
societies gradually ceased to be of a trade character, 
and began to take on a form of self-protection 
admitting as members persons who had no knowledge 
of stone-cutting or other mechanical arts, the old 
emblems of the tools of the trade being retained as 
symbols of degrees and character. 

MODERN MASONRY 

Began in London, June 2-i, 1717, when the four 
London lodges united into one and named their 
grand master. From this time forward no practical 
knowledge of mechanical work was required for 
admission. The principal promoters of this union 
were, Desaguliers, a well-known pojmlarizer of 
science, and James Anderson, a Presbyterian clergy- 
man, who compiled the book of constitutions con- 
taining the charges, rites and traditions of the craft, 
reducing them to something like system and order. 
From this time no new lodge could be formed without 



270 



HISTORY OF AMADOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



a warrant from the grand lodge. The Duke of 
Montagu became grand master. Other noblemen 
also joined the order so thai it lost Bomewhal of its 
democratic character. The principle of charity, as 
well as self-protection, became incorporated into it, 
and schools wire organized at t lie Lime, some of 
which i Battersea and Tottenham) are continued to 
. this day. 

The latter part of the eighteenth century a kind 
of rebellion or assumption of authority took place by 
the old York lodge of masons, claiming the right to 
issue warrants for the organization of subordinate 
lodges. This lodge claimed to have existed from 
!12<>. They also had a new ritual, introducing the 
red color of the Royal Arch, which they declared of 
higher rank than the blue degree of St. John. It 
was claimed to be a degree used at the second build- 
ing of the Temple. Another branch also introduced 
an order of the Templars. In 1813 the Dukes of 
Sussex, Kent and Athole, succeeded in uniting all 
these orders together under the name of " The 
United Grand Lodge of England." This patronage 
of the nobility gave the order an impetus which 
resulted in making it almost a national matter. 
About this time Jews were admitted to membership. 
They built a hall for the collection of material per- 
taining to the order, established several magazines 
such as the Freemason's Magazine, and the Freemason, 
and the Freemason's Quarterly, and built an asylum 
for indigent and unfortunate members of the order. 

At present, England has sixty provincial lodges, 
twelve hundred minor lodges, grand chapter of the 
royal arch degree, grand lodge for the mark masters, 
grand conclave of the knights' templars, and a 
superior grand council of the ancient and accepted 
rite of the thirty-three degrees. 

Masonry was introduced into Ireland in 1730. In 
Scotland the history of the order was much like that 
in England — except that at one time females, widows 
of members, were admitted as parties interested in 
building contracts. Desaguliers, the apostle of 
Masonry in England, appeared in Edinburg in 1721, 
and succeeded in modifying the character of the 
organization, and bringing about a union with the 
London societies. St. Andrew's day was substituted 
for that of St. John the Baptist, and on November 
30, 1736, a grand lo'dge for Scotland was formed, act- 
ing in connection with the grand lodge of England. 

It is said that in Scotland the growth of the order 
was rather towards conviviality than charity. Some 
of the ceremonies, such as drinking beer out of a 
human skull, had to be eliminated. The head of 
the St. Clair family resigned his hereditary office 
and became the first grand master. The supreme 
grand royal arch chapter was organized at Edinburg, 
but its authority is not recognized by other similar 
orders. 

Masonry as a speculative order was introduced in 
France in 1725. and from the first was patronized 
largely by the nobility. An attempt to engraft on 



it the mysteries of Cagliostro, the most accomplished 
humbug the world ever saw, which were said to 
have been derived from the deciphered records of 
Egypt, and also the Rosicrucian mysteries, and still 
more, a pretension to holy inspiration, came near 
strangling the infant in its cradle. Some of the 
Bon apart es, and Marshals Kellerman and Masscna, 
were members of the order. Napoleon the Great 
rather frowned on the order, as it contained too 
many of the nobility, who might come to a better 
understanding, and the members of the familie with- 
drew from the order. It does not flourish in France 
as in the more Protestant countries, the secrets of 
the order being out of reach of the confessional. 

Germany claims the honor of organizing modern 
masonrj^, and have what is called the royal mother 
lodge of the world. Those best acquainted with its 
workings and history, or at least some of them, say 
that the masonic organization was older in England 
than in Germany; that it was carried to Germany* 
and flourished there while it was nearly forgotten in 
England; that it was brought back from Germany, 
getting its final movement in England. 

GENERAL TENDENCY OF MASONRY. 

It is impossible, even for members, to judge accu- 
rately what its general tendency is. It undoubtedly 
is to some extent a rival, for favor, with the religious 
societies of the world, in a manner satisfying the 
hunger for a religious belief by holding in its bosom 
a continued mystery, whose end cannot be reached. 
The claim to be a charitable institution, to do good to 
the whole world, has perhaps a tendency to make 
them brethren with those who cannot give the signs 
of fellowship. Others contend that there is a ten- 
dency to a degeneracy into a convivial club. It is 
likely that all these tendencies prevail in different 
places, depending upon the tone of the surrounding 
society. 

The charge that was made against the order a half 
a century since of hatching treason to government, 
or the general plunder of society, has been forgotten 
and need not be defended here, though the Masonic 
lodges in some parts of Europe, especially in France, 
Italy and Austria, are said to be amenable to this 
charge, as also to the charge of entertaining irrelig- 
ious opinions. 

INTRODUCTION INTO THE UNITED STATES. 

Masonry was introduced into Boston in 1733, 
which was followed by lodges in different colonies. 
After the war of Independence grand lodges were 
foi-med in the several States. It flourished until 1829, 
when an exposure was made by a man by the name 
of Morgan in Batavia, New York. He was spirited 
away, and never heard of more. The old Whig party, 
which had an existence of a quarter of a century, 
was formed out of discontents in regard to the tariff 
and opponents to Free Masonry. In the hurry and . 
skurry of politics, Masonry was forgotten and 
allowed to outgrow the odium attached to it in Mor- 



SOCIETIES. 



277 



gan's time. Ben. Franklin was a grand master of a 
lodge in Philadelphia. Washington was also a mem- 
ber. There are now forty-three grand lodges, and 
five thousand subordinate" lodges in the United 
States, numbering four hundred thousand members, 
officers being elected each year by ballot. 

The officers of an organized lodge are : Worshipful 
Master, Senior Warden, Junior Warden, Treasurer, 
Secretary, Senior Deacon, Junior Deacon, Tyler and 
Chaplain. 

The Masonic library of books, written to explain 
its workings and claims to antiquity and support 
numbers four thousand volumes. 

VOLCANO LODGE, NO. 56, 

Is the oldest in the county, having been in existence 
since 1855. The first officers were J. C. Shipman, W. 
M.; T. Stewart, S.W.; E. Sammis, J. W.; B. W. 
Payne, Treas.; W. Hudson, S.; J. H. Welch, T. Since 
then the position of W. M. was held by G. E. Walker, 
1856; W. Iyer, 1857; J. W. Bicknel, 1858; B. Stew- 
art, 1859-60-62-65; Charles Wilson, 1861; ~L. Mc- 
Laine, 1863-64, 1869, 1878-79 ; A. Young, 1866-6X-68 ; 
James Adams, 1870-71, 1873-74-75-76-77; Louis Mil. 
ler, 1872. Many prominent men have been members 
of this lodge. Quite a volume might be written on 
the actions and adventures of the men who have at 
different times been associated in this institution. 

AMADOR LODGE, NO. 65, 

Was organized the same year, at Jackson, with W. 
W. Cope, as W. M.; W. M. Eogers, S. W.; C. Boyn- 
ton, J. W.; P. Clark, Treas.; B. Hubbard, S.; J. J. Gib- 
bons, T. Since then the chair of W.M. was filled by 
J. E. Graham, 1856-57; W. W. Cope, in 1858; M. J. 
Little, in 1859-60-62-63, 1865; M. Levinsky, 1861; J. 
Foote Turner, 1867; E. Aitken, in 1868-69-70-71-72- 
73; Wallace Kay, in 1874-75-76-77-78-79. This 
lodge also has had several distinguished names on its 
rolls, such as AV. W. Cope, who was a Chief Justice, 
and also that of J. T. Farley, United States Senator 
for California. The institution is flourishing, having 
a hall of its own. 

IONE LODGE, NO. 80, 

Was also organized in 1855, with A. E. Callaway as 
W. M.; J. T. Poe, S. VV.j E. Benedick, J. VV.: I. B. 
Gregory, Treas.; J. C. Gear, S.; and W. S. Porter, T. 
Soon after the organization the lodge, in conjunction 
with the citizens, erected a two-story building, taking 
the upper portion for the Masonic Hall, while the low- 
er was occupied as a school-house. About 1870, the 
Masons and Odd Fellows together purchased the 
Turner building, on extremely favorable terms, and 
converted the upper part into a convenient and com- 
modious hall, which they have since occupied. The 
position of W. M. has been filled since the organiza- 
tion by A. E. Callaway, in 1856; J. C. Gear, in 1857; 
J. A. Eagon, in 1858; H. H. Ehees, in 1859; J. Foot 
Turner, in 1860; E. F. Stevens, in 1861, 1866; J. 
Farnsworth, in 1862; E. II. Withington, in 1863; 
George Haverstick, in 1864; A. K. Dudley, in 1865; 



James dimming, in 1867; M. C. Parkinson, in 
1868-69; J. W. Surface, in 1870-71, 1874; B. Isaacs, 
in 1872-73; John Merchant, in 1875-76-77; W. A. 
Bennetts, in 1878-79. The members of this lodge 
are said to be worth, in the aggregate, near a 
milliou dollars, and the society is always in funds. 

HENRY CLAY LODGE, NO. 90, 

Was organized in 1856, at Sutter Creek, with S. F. 
Benjamin as W. M.; A. H. Pose, S. W.; O. P. South- 
well, J. W.; James Murry, Treas.; A. Hay ward, S.; 
and D. Crandall. T. The position of W. M. has been 
filled by O. P. Southwell, in 1857; A. Hay ward, in 
1858-59-60-61; II. Wood, in 1862; John G aver, in 
1863-64; Henry M. Fisk, in 1865-66-67-68; Thomas 
Dunlap, in 1869, 1871-72-73, 1875 ; A. C. Joy, in 1870; 
Henry Peck, in 1874; Morris Brinn, in 1876-77; J. 
E. Eussel,in 1878; and John Lithgow, in 1879. This 
lodge is also in good financial circumstances, many of 
the rich mine-owners, as Hayward, Chamberlain and 
others, having been members. 

ST. MARKS LODGE, NO. 115, 

Was organized in 1857, at Oleta (Fiddletown), with 
T. L. Sullivan as W. M.; A. B. Eowland, S. W.; T. 
M. Horrell, J. W.; A. Eneas Quin, Treas.; Thomas 
Horan, S.; and II. A. Kutchenthall, T. This lodge, 
in consequence of the decrease of the population and 
failure of the mines, has had a struggle for existence. 
In 1875 it was consolidated with No. 85, at Indian 
Diggings, to which it was attached until 1879, when 
it was reorganized at Oleta. The position of W. M. 
was filled in 1858-59-60, by F. L. Sullivan; in 1861, 
by Thomas Horan; in 1862, by J. B. Hill; in 1863- 
64-65, by W. B. Norman; in 1866, by D. Coblentz; 
in 1867, 1872-73-74, by Charles Lee; in 1868, by A. P. 
Wood; in 1869, by J. W. McManus; in 1870, by C. A. 
Purinton; in 1871, by H. J. Dial; in 1879, by H. H. 
Bell. 

DRYTOWN LODGE, NO. 174, 

Was organized in 1865, with J. B. Hill as W. M.; 
J. M. Hinkson, S. W.; Daniel Worley, J. W; M. A. 
Hinkson, Treasurer; A. S. Eichardson, S; and C. II. 
Misner, T. The first W. M. occupied the same posi- 
tion the two succeeding terms; the years 1868-69- 
70-71-72-74-75-76, by J. M. Hinkson; the year of 
1873 by Henry Burchell; 1877, by J. A. Gessler, and 
1879 by William Jennings. This lodge, the youngest 
in the county, has had its seasons of prosperity and 
adversity. When the mines along the lode employ 
a great many men the numbers on the roll increase. 

ROYAL ARCH CHAPTER. 

This is an advanced order of Masonry, and was 
derived from the York branch, having no connection 
with Scottish branch, which confers the thirty -three 
degrees. They date from the second building of 
Solomon's temple, which date is obtained by adding 
five hundred and thirty to the current year, 1881, 
becoming 2411 A. I., or Anno Inventionem (year of 
the discovery). The officers are High Priest, King, 
Scribe, Treasurer, Secretary, Captain of the Host, 



278 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 






Principal Sojourner, Royal Arch Captain, Masters 
of the third, Becond, and ftral vails, and Guard. 

A Chapter, called the Volcano Chapter, No. 8, 
was organized at Volcano, May 3, 1856. At the 
session of the (Jraml Lodge in I860, the name was 
changed to "Setter Creek," retaining the same 
number. The present officers arc John Lilhgow, 
II. P.; T. Dunlap, K.; Robert Robinson, S.; V. 
LuteneBky, Treas.; A. K. Dudley, Secy.; J. Mc- 
Dongal, Post C. of II.; Wallace Kay, P. S.; M. 
Brinn, R. A. C.; R. Redpath, Mastr 3d V.; D. A. 
Patterson, Mastr 2d V.; John Oulds, Mastr 1st V.; 
John Jelmini, Guard; Past High Priests, Alvinza 
Ilayward, R. Aitken, John Lithgow, J. \V. Surface. 

Members of the Royal Arch Chapter: James 
Adams, J. Q. Adams, G. Allen, W. A. Rennets, A. 
Berry man, J. M. Campbell, P. A. Clute, W .S. Cool- 
idge, R. Cosner, D. T. Davis, P. Fagan, J. T. Farley, 
II. P. Ford, F. Fratcs, W. II. Gunsolus, H. F. Hall, 
J. \V. Houston, B. Isaacs, John Marchant, L. Mc- 
Laine, S. S. Manon, J. W. McMurry, J. Milliken, J. 
Miller, G. Newman, L. R. Poundstone, C. A. Purin- 
ton, J. Peardon, P. S. Robertson, J. E. Russel, S. G. 
Spagnoli, B. Spagnoli, J. A. Steinberger, J. F. 
Stewart, J. B. Stevens, W. Sutherland, J. P. Sur- 
face, F. K. Taber, W. H. S. Welch, D. H. Whitlatch, 
numbering fifty-six. 

ORIGIN OF ODD FELLOWSHIP. 

Unlike the Masons, the origin of this order was in 
a convivial club, existing in the latter part of the 
last century in London, called the " Ancient and 
Honorable Order of Odd Fellows." Attempts were 
made to change the character of the order to one of 
more sobriety and decorum, which not succeeding, a 
portion seceded, and called themselves the Union 
Order of Odd Fellows. The members in England 
now number about five hundred thousand. April 
26, 1819, Thomas Wildey and four others organized 
the first lodge of Odd Fellows in the United States, 
acting under a charter from the Union Order of Odd 
Fellows. This day is frequently celebrated by the 
members. The order was established in Boston, 
March 26, 1820, and in Philadelphia, December 26, 
1821, both lodges receiving their charter from the 
Baltimore lodge. A grand charter was then issued 
to the past grands of New York. Since then the 
order has been established in every State and Terri- 
tory, and, perhaps, every county in the Union. 
There are forty-eight grand lodges, thirty six grand 
encampments, five thousand four hundred and eighty- 
six subordinate lodges, one thousand five hundred 
and twelve subordinate encampments, and five hun- 
dred and twelve Rebekah degree lodges. Candi- 
dates for admission must be free white males of 
good moral character, and twenty-one years old, 
who believe in a Supreme Being, the creator and 
preserver of the universe. Pidelity to the laws of 
the land and of the society, and the duties of good 
citizenship are strictly enjoined, though the order 



is moral and beneficiary, rather than religious. Its 
secrecy consists of an unwritten and unspoken lan- 
guage by means of signs, which serves for mutual 
recognition. Five or more members may constitute 
a subordinate lodge, whose functions are chiefly 
administrative. It provides means to relieve its sick 
and distressed members, to bury the dead, to relieve 
the widow, and to educate the orphan. The by-laws 
constitute the legal contract between the initiate 
and the lodge. The scries of degrees with white, 
pink, blue, green, and scarlet, represent moral les- 
sons. The officers of a subordinate lodge are Noble 
Grand, Vice-Grand, Secretary, and Treasurer, and 
are elected semi-annually. The degree of Rebekah 
was created in 1851, to be conferred upon the female 
members of the Odd Fellow families. 

THE ENCAMPMENT 

Is composed of members of the scarlet degree. The 
officers are Patriarch, High Priest, Senior and Junior 
Wardens, Secretary and Treasurer. They have the 
exclusive right to confer the patriarchal, golden rule 
and royal purple degrees, and are officered by a Chief 
Patriarch, High Priest, Senior Warden, Scribe, Treas- 
urer and Junior Warden. All Past Patriarchs in 
good standing, are members of grand encampments. 
The grand encampment meets annually, and is offi- 
cered by a Grand Patriarch, Grand High Priest, 
Grand Senior Warden, Grand Scribe, Grand Treas- 
urer, and Grand Junior Warden, elected annually. 
The grand lodge and grand encampments derive 
their revenues from charier fees and per centage on 
lodge or encampment revenues, and a per capita tax. 
The Grand Lodge of the United States is composed 
of representatives elected biennially by the several 
grand lodges and encampments. Its elective officers 
are a Grand Sire, Grand Secretary and Grand Treas- 
urer, elected biennially. The seat of government is 
Baltimore, where the order in the United States was 
first organized. Its revenue now amounts to over 
five million dollars annually. Since 1843 the order 
has had no official connection with or responsibility 
to the Union Order of Odd Fellows of England; 
hence the term Independent Order of Odd Fellows. 
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows has four 
supreme grand lodges — one in the United States; 
one in the German Empire; one in Australia, and 
one in New Zealand. In the United States it has 48 
subordinate grand lodges, 30 grand encampments, 
6,734 subordinate lodges, 1,318 subordinate encamp- 
ments, and 870 Rebekah lodges, composed of mem- 
bers of the filth degree and their wives. Total reve- 
nue for one year, $4,516,660.63. During the year 
1877, there were 40,578 initiations. Since the organ- 
ization to 1877, the initiations amounted to 1,064,928; 
members relieved, 816,882; widowed families relieved 
108,385; members buried, 74,226. The whole amount 
of relief was $69,235,989.45. The membership is now 
(1881) nearly three-fourths of a million. 



SOCIETIES. 



279 



VOLCANO LODGE, NO. 25, 

Was the first in the count} T , and has held its way 
firmly ever since, the membership generally approx- 
imating to a hundred. The first officers were, JST. 
Vipon, N. G; J. W. Warner, V. G; II. Hanford, E. 
S.; J. Fridenburg, T. Assets estimated at $3,000 
The following persons have filled the position of first 
officer: H. Hanford, P. S. Wilkes, J. E. Warner, H. 
Lake, J. Halsey, T. A. Goodwin, A. Petty, E. Grant, 
D. S. Boydston, Chas. Wilson, A. Ilowerton, L. Miller, 
Geo. Coilins, N. Buddick, B. Eoss. * * * 

Members of the Eebekah Degree — Mesdames Han- 
nah E. Warner, Elizabeth Phelps, Sarah Eobinson, 
Christiana Weller, Catherine Burnhardt, Emma W. 
Halsey, Mary A. Mails, Lucy B. Hanford, Charlotte 
Barnum, Warren Tarr, Samuel Hale, Wm. Blakely, D. 
Lowery, — MeKensie,'Eva Walker, Sophia Babcock, 
Susan Boydston, Jane Largomarcino, Mary Cox, 
Julia E. McFadden, James Hall, A. Petty, C. B. 
Goodrich, E. D. 'Miller, J. Stainer. 

SUTTER CREEK LODGE, NO. 31, 

Was organized in I860. First officers: C. B. Culver, 
N. G.; J. T. Skinner, V. G.; J. Davidson, E. S.; W. 
Gothie, T. Property estimated at $3,425.62. The 
position of first officer has been held by W. E. Fifield, 
Wm. Gothie, W. Palmer, E. F. Huse, J. S. Hill, D. 
M. Hardman, C. Weaver, W. E. Finn, J. Swift, II. B. 
Bishop, J. H. Hammond, B. F. Taylor, L. Founder, 
A. Campbell, W. C. Harvey, James Bennet, J. K 
Claxton, J. Higgins, Stephen Moyle. * * * The 
members of this lodge range from fifty-four to 
eighty. It is in a flourishing condition. 

Members of Eebekah Degree — Mesdames C. E. 
Bishop, Lavinia Stowers, G-. Shealor, J. Collins, E. 
Blake, G. King, J. Saunders, G. Allen, W. P. Jones, 
J. W.Allen, Alfred Howell, Jacob Turner, James Ham- 
mond, E. M. Corliss, C. D. Burleson, Daniel Donnelly, 
Bichard Jones, A. E. Greenwell, Jane F. Ellis, Julia 
Tressider, M. E. Warkins, E. S. Bennett, Jane Smith, 
Jane Higgins, F. E. Dennis, Ellen Tucker, S. P. 
Taylor, F.' S. Belding, Elizabeth Jacka, — Breedlovo 
— Bruce, — Keerfoot, — Gilmore, — Banell, — Pay- 
ton, M. Brinn, — Fagan, — Scott, — Seaman, Stephen 
Moyle, John Laswell, Geo. Wrigglesworth, W. C. 
Harvey, Wm. H. Turner, J, E. Tregloan, Jane 
Trippit, D. T. Davis, Thomas Davis, J. E. Davis, F. 
Labin, Alfred Howell. 

JACKSON LODGE, NO. 36, 

Organized in 1860. First officers : II. Hoeber, ~N. G.; 
J. P. Alsover, V. G.; S. Page, E. S; A. Yoak, Treas- 
urer. The value of property was estimated at three 
thousand one hundred and eighty dollars. The first 
officers since its organization were: E. G. Freeman, D. 
Cuppet, S. B. Bartlett, E. Agard. J. T. Shelborne, E. 
S. Hall, L. Brandt, E. B. Styles, D. B. Spagnoli, H. 
W. Allen, L. J. Dodge, J. A. Peters, J. Smith, J. Hol- 
lingsworth, J. C. McNamara. * * * 

Members of Eebekah Degree — Mesdames B. B. Bed- 
head, W. A. Eogers, E. G. Freeman, N. M. Bowman, 
T. D. Wells, Thomas Shelborne, Sarah S. Eobinson, 



Nancy E. Miller, Elizabeth Kesbler, Laura Brummel, 
Catherine A. Hall, E. Hesse, J. D. Mason, S. II. 
Bartlett, N. C. Briggs, Mary J. Perry, L. J. Little- 
field, Susan Meek, Isabella E. Spagnoli, M. Lory, E. 
Warren, F. Brandt, L. J. Doaye, James Avis, Fred. 
Balls, H. L. Joy, O. Walther, T. A. Springer, I. 
Ideans, A. Gabrino. 

IONE LODGE, NO. 51. 

First officers: J. Bowen,N. G.; J. Bagley, Y.G.; G. 
Ilaverstick,E. S.; D. Stewart, Treasurer. First officers 
since : Geo. Haverstick, T. P. Stewart, M. Zimmer, A. 
Preater, I. B. Fish, 0. N. Morse, C. Burgen, G. W. 
Owens, C. B. Strong, H. Craner, E. Ludgate, J.W. Sur- 
face^. B. McDonald, W.K.Johnston, Henry C. King, 
W. H.Prouty, James McCauley. * * * Yalue of prop- 
erty in 1860, fifteen hundred dollars. For many 
years this lodge was weak in numbers, though strong 
in purpose, the numbers varying from nineteen in 
1861 to thirty as late as 1870. After that it took a 
start, and now numbers nearly a hundred, with an 
interest in a good hall, and is in a good working 
condition. Assets in 1872, twelve hundred dollars. 

Members of the Eebekah Degree — Mesdames Mar- 
garet Bagley, Margaret Morse, Mary A. Dutschke, 
Elizbeth Baker, J. McCauley, Moses Myer, D. Stew- 
art, E. Ludgate, John Hartman, Virginia Burgen, 
May Ann Brown, T. Eichards, D. Fisher, L. H. Lang. 

TELEGRAPH LODGE, NO. 79 

Was instituted at Oleta (Fiddletown) in 1859. Char- 
ter members : James Burt, J. C. Chestnut, John 
Cumberland, John Cox. George Harridon, J. H. 
Howle;t, J. F. Ostrom, Wilmer Palmer, F. P. Smith, 

C. O. Sloat, Leroy Worden, II. II. White. Third 
degree— W. E. Dean, J. W. Kendall, J. Keifer, B. F. 
Marble, Samuel Parker, E. A. Sloat, E. Wigal. Sec- 
ond degree, David Frazine. In a short time it had 
thirty-three members. Leroy Worden was the first 
representative to the Grand Lodge. 1ST. G.'s since 
the organization : J. F. Ostrom, S. Parker, H. D. 
Ford, W. T. Ligget, J. E. Bates, F. A. Charleville, 
G. Coblentz, W. F. Knapp, C. Perry, A. F. Driver, E. 
A. Sloat, E. Brown, * * * 

Members of the Degree of Eebekah — Mrs. E. S. 
Potter. * * * 

LANCHA PLANA LODGE, NO. 95, 

Organized in 1860. First officers : H. A. Messinger, 
N. G.; S. Kidd, V. G.; Wm. Cook, E. S.; J. P. Mc- 
Henry, Treasurer. The assets were valued at eight 
hundred and eighty-one dollars and eighty-seven 
cents. The position of N. G. was afterwards filled 
by J. P. McHenry, H. Percival, * * * In 1864 
the lodge ceased to report, the members uniting 
with other lodges. 

PLYMOUTH LODGE, NO. 260, 

Was instituted at Plymouth, June 15, 1879, by John 
Blower, D. D. G. M., assisted by 1. N. Eandolph, P. 
G. M., assisted by other P. G. Masters. Charter 
members: C. A. Corded, W. Wright, J. A. Gessler, 

D. W. Walker, T. P. Bawden, S. G. Lewis, Charles 
Green, E. S. Potter*, S. Bing, E. Summers, and John 



280 



INSTOKV OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 






Daviggio; D. VV. Walker being the first N. G., and 
T. P. Bawden Lbe next. This lodge, unlike some 
of the others, became numerous immediately. . They 
have a line ball, and have never felt (lie pinch of 
poverty. The prosperity of the Order lias been 
largely dne to the active exertions of Chns. Green, 
who was lor many years (lie foreman of the Empire 
and Phoenix mines. 

'INK i. RAND ENCAMPMENT, NO. 17, 

Is composed of members of tlie scarlet or fifth 
degrees, these being, in their order, white, pink, 
blue, green, and scarlet. Two encampments have 
been formed in the county; the Amador, No. 17, at 
Sutter Creek, and the Marble, No. 19, at Volcano, 
the latter afterwards being removed to lone, retain- 
ing the same name. The first was organized in 
1859, with .1. A. Brown as Chief Patriarch; J. T. 
Skinner, High Priest; J. M. Smith, Senior Warden, 
Charles Doveton, Scribe; D. Gardner, Treasurer; 
James Foster, Junior Warden. The officers are 
elected semi-annually; S. L. Sutton, Isaac Tripp, 
Wilmer Palmer, Morris Brinn, L. T. McLinn, J. H. 
Hammond, and G. A. Newton, having been Chief 
Patriarchs at different times since. 

THE MARBLE ENCAMPMENT, NO. 19, 

Was organized June 19, I860, with E. A. Kingsley 
as C. P.; B. Ross, H. P.; G. Williams, S. W.; R. F. 
Logan, J. VV.; Joseph Samuels, Treasurer. The 
following persons have since filled the position of 
Chief Patriarch: I. Butland, R. M. Bradshaw, George 
Collins, II. T. Barnum. This list is not complete, 
the official returns not being at hand, the object 
in this history being to give an idea of the workings 
of the order rather than a detailed history. As in the 
Masonic order the literature which one must read 
and become familiar with to be well up in the order, 
is immense. 

The society is yet plastic in all its workings, 
readily adapting itself to the changing habits of 
mankind. The main object is relief to its members, 
but a great many other things are accomplished. 
The societies have numerous, well-stocked libraries, 
where the best of books are kept free of charge, for 
its members, though friends of the members are not 
rigidly excluded, but frequently admitted as a mat- 
ter of courtesy. Much good is being accomplished 
in this way. The introduction of the Degree of 
Rcbekah admitting females, was probably in re- 
sponse to the general demand for .admitting women 
to greater privileges, which, in time, may be still 
farther extended. The friends of the order have 
ample cause to be satisfied, and are not wanting 
substantial reasons for claiming Odd Fellowship as 
the best fruit of modern civilization. 

TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES. 

These were organized in an early day. As early 
as 1853 a body organized after the manner of the 
Washingtonians held weekly meetings in the old 
Methodist church at Volcano. There was ample 
cause for work in this direction, for the habit 



of drinking was fearfully prevalent. All who ever 
drank, and many who never did before, were swept 
into the almost universal habit. The churches 
generally discouraged drinking, but the small voice 
was not heard amid the clinking of glasses and 
chinking of gold. Twelve or fifteen persons met and 
talked over the prevalence of the habit, and com- 
forted each other in their loneliness. Occasionally 
they would capture for a few months some notorious 
drinker, sober him off and get a clean shirt on him, 
but the great mass kept on their course, and every 
barrel of flour brought into town was sandwiched 
with whisky, that kept company from the rising to 
the going down of the sun, until the mines were 
exhausted. In September and October of that year, 
the society grew until the roll numbered a hundred 
or more names. Many hard drinkers were sobered 
up for a time. The first division of the Sons of Tem- 
perance in the county was organized about the first 
of November of that year. — Davidson, of Amador, 
W. P.; — Daviss, P. VV. P.; L. S. Scott, O; R. 
Stewart, R. S.; Ned Lonegan, F. S.; D. Boydston, 
I. S.; Jacob Level, 0. S. J. K. Stoughton and Sem- 
pronius Boyd were among the charter members. 
When this society was organized the old society was 
dissolved, most of the members joining the new 
order. In 1855 a new hall was built, which has been 
devoted to temperance work since, though occupied 
by different societies. 

The Sons of Temperance have had organizations 
in nearly all the towns of the county at different 
times, flourishing notably in lone in 1875-76, and in 
Sutter Creek, Amador and Drytown about the same 
time. These societies are maintained by small 
monthly dues. They have high-sounding titles, like 
Worthy Patriarch, Past and Grands of the same, 
with significant regalia to correspond. Persons of 
both sexes of fourteen years and upward are 
admitted. Though temperance is the professed 
object, the love of power inherent in human nature 
soon manifests itself, and a lodge or division soon 
becomes divided into factions, each striving for the 
mastery. \ Sometimes the younger members will 
combine against the elder, and make fun and merri. 
ment the main object. The societies have a pre- 
ventive rather than a reformatory tendency, but 
undoubtedly exert a healthy influence in holding the 
evils of intemperance constantly in view, and in 
teaching habits of obedience and the responsibilities 
of authority. 

THE GOOD TEMPLARS 

Are of similar character, with perhaps a better sys- 
tem of organization, as the society holds together 
and accumulates property, having an asylum for 
orphans at Vallejo which would be a credit to any 
order. This society had a large prosperity in 
1858-59-60 at lone. C. B. Strong, I. B. Gregory, 
Mrs. George Withington, Wm. H. Scudder and wife, 
being among the principal promoters of the organi- 
zation. 




wS&s&t&ie 



Residence and Ranch 320 acres of JONATHAN SALLEE, 

near Plymouth, Amador G9. Cal. 







ML M 



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CENTRAL HOUSE RANCH. 

Residence and Property of M«ss m. H.WELLS & J.H.GRAMBART, 
Near Plymouth, Amador C0,Cal. 



uth. BfKrrroH a «/-y. j. *■. 



SOCIETIES. 



281 



THE KNIGHTS OP THE RED CROSS, 

A beneficiary society, is flourishing of late years. 
This has engrafted some of the customs of the Ma- 
sonic and Odd Fellows' organizations on the former 
temperance unions, and are consequently more self- 
sustaining. The order is flourishing in lone at the 
present writing. 

THE BLUE RIBBON SOCIETY 

Is an order which requires its members to wear the 
badge of abstinence in the daily intercourse with 
mankind. The lodge at Volcano was organized by 
Doctor Haskell, an itinerant tempei"ance reformer. 
It numbers about one hundred members. It has a 
President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer. 
R. Stewart was the first President; James Jenkins, 
Vice-President. The, present officers are : George 
Madeira, President; Miss Anna Whitehead, Vice- 
President; Miss Minnie Mclntyre, Treasurer, and 
Miss Ellen Cottingham, Secretary. The Blue Ribbon 
Bugle is a manuscript paper read once or twice a 
month to the society and others interested. 

THE GENERAL TENDENCY OF TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES 

Is undoubtedly good, though a habit of indulgence 
which has prevailed for centuries cannot be eradi- 
cated in a generation. Inherited appetite, customs 
of society, and pecuniary interests are all conducive 
to the perpetuation of the vice of drinking. Sump- 
tuary laws have ever been unpopular, and conse- 
quently laws regulating the manufacture, sale and 
consumption of alcoholic beverages have had much 
prejudice to contend with, much negative opposition; 
but when public opinion generally sanctions them 
they will be as effective as other laws. 

SUBJECTS FOR INSANE ASYLUMS. 

Whisky, and the excitement of mining, with its 
gains and losses, hopes and disappointments, sent a 
fearful number to the Insane Asylum, the average 
from Amador county, according to the reports, being 
one a month. As to whisky as a cause of insanity, 
the opinion of E. T. Wilkins, Commissioner in 
Lunacy for the State of California, as found in his 
report to Gov. II. H. Ilaight, December 2, 1871, may 
be to the point: 

With regard to intemperance * * * It 
seems to be the bane of all countries, and claims its 
victims in every civilized nation and under every 
form of government. It is the common enemy of 
mankind, the destroyer of domestic happiness, the 
copartner of every crime from petit larceny to mur- 
der. It is the father of poverty, the creator of 
debauchery, and the principal working tool of the 
devil. N"o man is bold enough to defend it, and yet 
it is tolerated by all classes of society. It finds its 
way alike to the house of the rich and the home of 
the poor. It is the boon companion at the festive 
board of the aristocrat and the poorly provided table 
of the cottager. It has caused more heart-aches, 
produced more tears, engendered more sorrows, 
starved more babies, and led to more insanity than 
any other agent in existence — if not more than all 
other causes combined. We are strongly inclined to 
36 



the opinion that directly or remotely it is more 
potent in producing these results than all other 
causes. It is the sin of civilization that it has found 
out ways of extracting alcohol from natural sub- 
stances, so that it is offered in tempting forms and 
accessible abundance to the weak and incautious 
who would not instinctively seek it, as well as those 
whose appetites demand it. If, then, civilization is 
responsible for the introduction of this destructive 
element among mankind, it is certainly its duty, and 
it should be compelled, to provide for its victims. 
How to arrest its progress, if, indeed, it be possible, 
we must leave to the wiser heads of the Legislature 
and the statesman; and he who can solve the prob- 
lem will be the wisest of men. and a greater bene- 
factor to his fellow-men than has ever yet appeared 
among them. 

BURLESQUE SOCIETIES. 

The essential object of these is fun; it matters 
little at whose expense. Ridicule is a chief element 
in all the ceremonies and exercises. All that admits 
of it is burlesqued. The members claim for the 
societies that in addition to affording amusement, 
which is a sanitary necessity, they take down the 
pretentious and pompous, prick the bubbles of ego- 
tism, and benefit society in many ways. If only the 
conceited, pompous and pretentious were made sub- 
jects of the initiation, there would be some claim for 
the respect of the community; but it often happens 
that the unsuspecting and honest are their victims. 

THE E-CLAMPSUS VITUS 

Flourished in 1851-62, especially in lone. The ini- 
tiation was generally newly arranged for each sub- 
ject. One ceremony was to make the initiate crawl 
through a portion of an old smoke stack and acceler- 
ate his movements by dashing buckets of cold water 
after him; another, to run him blindfolded over 
chains and other obstructions until his shins were 
well barked; another, to make him jump from a terri- 
ble height (?) into a tub of cold water, after which 
he was dressed up in some absurd way, brought before 
a mirror and the blind removed, that he might " see 
himself as the world saw him." Not all were ad- 
mitted in this way; some were received for the pur- 
pose of assisting in the work. 

Many sober, honest, middle-aged men were induced 
to join to become the possessors of the great secret. 

THE HAUTONTIMOROUMENOS 

Flourished in Amador, but had branches in Sutter, 
Jackson and other places. From the cuts with 
which their official papers were ornamented, the 
impression would be formed that the society was 
rather of the convivial order. 

THE KNIGHTS OF THE ASSYRIAN CROSS, 

Organized in 1873, have maintained a longer exist- 
ence than any others of this class in the county. 
In Sutter Creek, where the first lodge was organized, 
they number one hundred members; fifty in Jackson, 
and about the same in lone. The high, swelling 
names of the other societies are burlequesed in great 
style, the English dictionary being ransacked to find 



282 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



suitable superlatives. Grand Mogul, Great Grand 
Li^bl <>f A.ge8, Grand Exeoutioner, Bearer of the 
Great Seal, and everything else of a grandiose char- 
acter are freely appropriated and bestowed. An 
antiquity of a half million of years ia also claimed, 
antedating Masonic or all other societies. They 
claim to be benevolent, literary, scientific, philosophic 
and religious. They occasionally paradein costume, 
or rather in masks, representing all kinds of animals. 
They hold public meetings, at which characteristic 
poems, orations and other excrcies are indulged in. 
Those who wish for further information may un- 
doubtedly obtain it by applying to the proper per- 
sons. 

PIONEER SOCIETIES. 

Soon after the settlement, when it became apparent 
that California was destined to become a great and 
important State, associations began to be formed, 
some to preserve the records of the early events, 
some for mutual assistance, and some as claiming a 
kind of distinction for having been among the first 
to arrive in the country. Hence the Pioneer society, 
which required a residence as early as 1849 formem- 
bership, and the Territorial Pioneers that required a 
residence prior to September 9, 1850. 

THE AMADOR SOCIETY OP CALIFORNIA PIONEERS 

Was organized September 9, 1877, at Jackson, Cali- 
fornia. Its objects are to cultivate the social virtues 
of its members, alleviate their sufferings and sick- 
ness, secure them a decent burial, aud, as far as pos- 
sible, render assistance when needed to their widows 
and orphans, and also assist in perpetuating the 
memory of those whose love of enterprise and 
independence induced them to seek a home in the far 
West and become the germ of a new and great 
State. Members are required to have bad a resi- 
dence previous to December 1, 1852, to be citizens or 
desirous of becoming such. Male descendants of the 
above, twenty-one years of age, may become mem- 
bers. Admission fees must not be less than five 
dollars. Regular monthly dues are established by the 
society. Members, in case of sickness or bodily 
injury by which they are prevented from following 
their usual occupations, are entitled to such weekly 
benefits as may be fixed by law. Sixty dollars burial 
expenses are allowed. The regular meetings are on 
the first and third Mondays of each month. 

Charter members — X. Benoist, Chas. Boarman, R. 
Caminetti, J. D. Davis, Peter David, George Durham, 
Ellis Evans, Thomas Greenhalgh, H. Goldner, M. W. 
Gordon, E. Gardner, J. Gross, J. F. Gould, Philip 
Gilbert, J. F. Harleman, J. C. Ham, Wm. Jennings, 
Thomas Jones, E. A. Kent, Thomas Love, John 
Martin, James Meehan, John Marlett, John B. 
Phelps, Wm. Pitt, R. W. Palmer, Chas. Peters, John 
B. Reeves, Chas. B. Swift, Joseph Smith, Louis 
Tellier, John Yogan. 



REGULAR iME.MlJEKS. 



Allen, J. 0. 
Boarman, Chas.* 
Billiard, .1. B* 
Benoist, X. 
Boxall, Wm. 
Boyrie, Jacques 
Burnbardt, P. K. 
Boyer, J ulian 
Bales J. J. 
Cook, Wm. 
Durham, George 
David, Peter 
Davis, J. D. 
Dvvyer, P. 
De.-bro, Wm. 
Evans, Ellis 
Eigon, J. A. 
Gilbert, Philip 
Gould, J. F. 
Gardner, E. 
Greenhalgh, Thos. 
Gross, Joseph 
Goldner, Herman 
Graham, Frank 
Hurleman, J. F. 
Ham, J. C. 
Howard, Frank 
Han ley, Tim. 
Hinkson, J. M. 
llinkson, R. S. 
Hinkson, N. C. 
Jennings, Wm. 
Jones, Thos. 
Jones, W. C. 
Kent, E. A. 
Koch, Albert 

LIST OE OFFICERS. 

1878-79. 1880-81. 

President James Meehan James Meehan 

Yice President. .Thomas Jones J. A. Eagon 

Secretary J. D. Davis J. F. Gould 

Treasurer -E. Evans E. Evans. 

C Louis Tellier ( E. A. Kent 

Trustees ■] J. F. Gould 1 P. D wyer 

( P. Dwyer (johnVogan 

E. A. Kent ( Thos. Jones 



Kelly, Michael 
Kesliler, A. 
Love. Thomas* 
Latique, Vital 
Laronsini, Jean 
Marlett, John 
.Meehan, James 
McKoy, R. K. 
McKinney, A. 
Feck, Henry* 
Phelps, J. B. 
Peters, Charles 
Pitt, Wm. 
Palmer, R. W. 
Plasse, RajTnond 
Reeves, John B. 
Swift, C. B. 
Stevitch, J. 
Straggozi, Paul 
Schwartz, F. 
Schwartz, E. 
Steckler, Chas.* 
Stewart, Robert 
Silva, Thos. 
Staats, F. K. 
Sejers, Jas. 
Styles, S. W. 
Stewart, Danl. 
Sullivan, Jeremiah 
Stowers, W. A. 
Tellier, Louis 
Truel, H. 
Tarwater, G. F. 
Yo^an, John 
White, George 
Weller, C. 



Finance Com. \ T. Greenhalgh. . -! H. Goldner 

(_ Charles Peters (_ Thomas Love 

Marshal R. W. Palmer R. W. Palmer. 

The society is making historical collections, and 
have some curious relics of early years, among which 
are copies of the Owl and Quincy Prospector, the first 
newspapers published in the county. The society is 
in a flourishing condition. 

THE SCLAVONIC ILLYRIC MUTUAL BENEVOLENT SOCIETY 

Is a branch of the San Francisco society of the same 
name. Monthly dues, one dollar; the members re- 
ceiving in case of sickness, eight dollars per week. 
In case of death the funeral expenses are paid by 
the society. They own a hall, costing about three 
thousand five hundred dollars. The society was 
organized at Sutter Creek, 1874. 

GRANGERS. 

Some years since several of these societies were 
organized in the county. The first was in the vicin- 
*Deceased. 



SKETCHES OF AMADOR COUNTY BAR. 



283 



ity of the Jackson valley school-house. The objects 
seemed to have been to protect themselves against 
the extortions of middle men, by combining to dis- 
pose of their produce directly to the consumers. 
The attempt was not quite successful, owing to the 
inexperience or incapacity of their agents. It was 
attempted to engraft them on the political parties, 
but the Grangers declined any alliance. It is likely, 
however, that both parties, seeking their votes, con- 
ceded legislation that would not have been given to 
unorganized sentiment. The influence of the grange 
is much less now than a few years since. There ai-e 
still two or three societies in the county. It is 
probable that social enjoyment rather than financial 
benefits, is the motive power. The officers are 
divided between males and females, the latter being 
elected to offices such as Ceres, Pomona and Flora. 
A society of this kind meets once a month at Sutter 
Creek, occasionally holding a feast or day of general 
recreation. -No statistics are at hand. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 



SKETCHES OF AMADOR COUNTY BAR. 
BY J. G. SEVERANCE, SAN FRANCISCO. 

At a very early period in the history of California, 
subsequent to its acquisition by the United States, 
the Bar of "Old Calaveras" was justly assigned 
a position in the front rank of the legal profession. 
It was, with few exceptions, composed of men of 
push and genius; of acknowledged worth, integrity, 
ability, and wit; men possessed of learning and 
culture, acquired in the best of Eastern schools, and 
of large experience, gained by near association and 
contact with the ablest lawyers, jurists, and scholars 
of the commercial and manufacturing cities, and 
populous agricultural and mineral districts of the 
Atlantic States. That air of rusticity, and the lim- 
ited professional experience which usually charac- 
terize members of the profession in the interior of 
older settled sections, were wanting among these 
cosmopolitan argonauts. Thej 7 were alike experi- 
enced in, and qualified to skillfully deal with, intri- 
cate questions of maritime, commercial, and inter- 
national law, as settled and adjudicated by author- 
ity, and to cope with and adjust successfully such 
novel legal problems as the new industries, customs, 
and requirements of the newly acquired territory 
developed; they came prepared for city or country 
life, for metropolitan, bucolic or pioneer practice. 
They abandoned the homes of education and refine- 
ment in the East, for the rude life of the Western 
El Dorado, in search of the Golden Fleece, and, if 
funds ran low because of the too angelic visits of 
clients, instead of listlessly awaiting the coming of 
a brief in their offices, they sought and found lucra- 
tive employment on ranches, in work shops, kitchens, 
mining claims, and other vocations, until a popular 
recognition of their talents gave abundant labor in 



their profession. Many a retainer of corpulent pro- 
portions has been dropped into hands made hard 
and horny by familiarity with rough labor, or soft- 
ened by culinary employment, and the grease of the 
dish-pan; and the intricate details of many cases 
of great financial importance have been imparted to 
counsel while. engaged with pick and shovel at the 
sluices and the long-tom. 

Ably and well has the Bar of "Old Calaveras" 
been represented in both the Senate and House of 
Representatives of the national Congress, and in 
both Houses of the State Legislature, by not a few 
of its members; many, to its honor and credit, have 
worn the judicial ermine. It has furnished gov- 
ernors, and numerous faithful and competent officials 
for political positions, Federal, State, and municipal, 
and none have been found unworthy of the trust 
reposed in them. When, by the Act of the State 
Legislature of 1854, the little county of Amador was 
created out of a portion of Calaveras county, the 
former retained a fair and just proportion of the 
legal talent which had been embraced within the 
latter. A jealous, but friendly, rivalry was engen- 
dered between the denizens of the two sections 
lying on either side of the deep gorge through which 
flowed the Mokelumne river, and which seemed to 
have been designed by Nature for a political boun- 
dary line; and frequent contentions arose, in which 
the opposing clans acknowledged the leadership of 
the lawyers of their respective divisions. So equally 
matched were these generals in diplomacy and skill, 
that a segregation was acquiesced in, as the only 
method of adjustment, and Amador county was 
created, that each faction might have full scope for 
the exercise of its genius. A close intimacy and the 
kindliest feeling subsequently existed between the 
two Bars, which have at all times been so closely 
allied that great difficulty is experienced in record- 
ing the history of the one, without including that of 
the other. 

The more important of the early litigation in 
Amador county was concerning matters affecting 
the respective and relative rights of the miner, the 
riparian claimant and the agriculturist, up to about 
the year 1866, when the Supreme Court decided that 
the interest of a miner in his claim was realty, hence 
questions affecting such interest were not within the 
jurisdiction of inferior courts. All cases involving the 
possession of mining claims, their boundaries and 
priviliges were tried in Justices' Courts, irrespective 
of their values, subject to an appeal to the County 
Court. Consequently large fees were frequently paid 
to attorneys for conducting trials in these courts 
where the interests involved often amounted to 
thousands of dollars. The waters of the rivers and 
creeks were appropriated and conveyed in ditches 
and flumes to the mines by the construction of dams 
and tapping them at different points, and it fre- 
quently became a delicate matter to properly and 
equitably adjust the rights of adverse claimants. It 



28 1 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



/. 



often occurred thai beneath th>' mosl productive soil, 
forming the Burface of a Bal or bar, the bed rock 
w;is richesl in its deposits of gold. Eenoe many 
questions arose withoul well established precedents, 
and legislative as well as judicial skill was frequently 
invoked to settle them in such manner as the bettor 
to Bubserve the public welfare and the individual 
interests of each. Senator Norman, of Calaveras 
county, introduced a bill, which was known as the 
Norman Bill, in tho Legislature, which became a law 
in the year 1857, and which, in a great measure, 
served to reconcile disputes concerning tho relative 
rights of the miner and agriculturist; and the final 
adjudication of many other litigious propositions 
arising in the courts of Amador, of a novel charac- 
ter, have largely contributed to the settlement of 
vexed questions, and rendered certain what was 
before uncertain. 

Following are the names of those who, as judges 
and lawyers, have taken an active part in the judi- 
cial affairs of the county since its organization: 
Marion W. Gordan, W. W. Cope, Robert M. Briggs, 
James F. Hubbard, S. J. K. Handy, James T. Farley, 
James W. Porter, A. C. Brown, Samuel B. Axtell, 
Thomas D. Grant, T. M. Pawling, H. A. Carter, John 
C. Gear, Charles Boynton, Judge Reynolds, J. G. 
Severance, George W. Seaton, John W. Armstrong, 
James H. Hardy, Alvinza Hayward, John Palmer, 
W. P. Buchanan, Alonzo Piatt, W. T. Curtis, Claiborn 
Roarer, Henry L. Waldo, Nash C. Briggs, John A- 
Bagon, Wm. P. George, Fayette Mace, T. J. Phelps, 
A. Caminetti, Silas Penry, George Moore, P. C. 
Johnson, L. N. Ketchum, J. Foot Turner, J. A. 
Robinson, Henry Cook, Moses Tebbs, George L. Gale. 

Amador county was first included within the fifth 
judicial district, of which Hon. Charles M. Creanor, 
now of Stockton, was the Judge. This district was 
comprised of the populous and important mining 
and agricultural counties of Amador, Calaveras, 
Tuolumne, Stanislaus and San Joaquin, and, to dis- 
pose of the enormous amount of litigation arising 
therein, required great energy, endurance, and dis- 
patch. Court week at Jackson was an eventful 
season. Motions and demurrers for delay received 
but little consideration, and not to be ready when 
your case was called was to have it very summarily 
disposed of. Jurors, witnesses, and litigants, from 
all parts of the county, were largely in attendance, 
and one case followed another from nine in the 
morning until far into the night, when, not infre- 
quently, rest and recreation were only found at 
the poker table until morning. Hon. Tod Robinson, 
of Sacramento, was so constant an attendant on the 
courts of Amador, that a history of its Bar would 
be incomplete without mention of bis name; and 
time and again have the Court House walls at Jack- 
son rung with the eloquent voices of Honorables E. D. 
Baker, N. Greene Curtis, Frank Hereford, and others 
whose oratory has won for them a national fame, and 
still oftener have they resounded with the blows of 



the Sheriff's knuckles upon his unoffending desk, in 
his efforts lo bring order out of the chaos provoked 
by some sally of wit on the part of Col. A. P. Hud- 
ley, of < lalaveras. 

.Jud^e Creanor possessed the exceptional power 
and ability requisite to discharge the onerous duties 
that devolved upon him as tho judicial head of so 
huge a district as his, and infused into those who 
practiced in his courts something of his executive 
zeal. So quick of comprehension was he that but 
few explanatory words were necessary to conve}' to 
his clear, grasping and judicial mind all the salient 
points in the facts of the most complicated and cum- 
bersome cause; so impartial and just in his decisions 
and conclusions that no charge of porsonal favoritism, 
bribery, fraud or dishonesty was ever hinted at; so 
prompt in the dispatch of business pertaining to the 
courts that no attendant thereon complained of 
unnecessary detention; so firm and rigid in court 
regime, that it is said of him he imposed a fine upon 
himself for being ten minutes late at court one 
morning; so courteous to the elder and considerate 
to the younger members of the profession, that he 
possessed the highest esteem and fullest confidence of 
all; it was but a natural sequence that his example 
had much to do in moulding the character and 
habits of those who practiced before him. No judge 
ever retired from the bench with a fairer record than 
Hon. Charles M. Creanor; and if any errors of judg- 
ment are entered there, they are so obscured by the 
brilliancy of his sterling qualities that we pass them 
unnoticed. 

As before stated, Amador was first in the fifth 
judicial district, with Hon. C. M. Creanor as Judge. 
In 1859, the district was divided, and Amador and 
Calaveras made to constitute the sixteenth judicial 
district, Hon. James H. Hardy being appointed the 
first Judge thereof. Hon. Wm. H. Badgley, of Cala- 
veras county, succeeded Judge Hardy. Judge 
Badgley was a highly cultivated and polished gen- 
tleman from the State of New York, and is now 
engaged in practice in that city. Judge Silas W. 
Brockway, a native of New York, an earnest 
laborer in his profession, an able lawyer, and pos- 
sessed of great force of character, succeeded Judge 
Badgley in 1864, Amador being then in the eleventh 
district, composed of Amador, El Dorado, and Cala- 
veras. Hon. A. C. Adams, now of San Francisco, 
succeeded Judge Brockway, and Hon. George H. 
Williams, of El Dorado, succeeded Judge Adams. 

That this sketch may not justly be compared to 
the great play of Hamlet with Hamlet omitted, the 
brief biographies of such prominent members of the 
Amador Bar as could be obtained, are appended. 

J. W. Armstrong was a blacksmith in eaily days 
in California, but took a notion that he could make 
a lawyer of himself, and commenced the study some 
twenty-two years since. He has been, and is, one of 
the most indefatigable students the world ever saw, 



SKETCHES OF AMADOR COUNTY BAR. 



285 



exhibiting a most wonderful capacity for hard work. 
He commenced the practice in Amador county, some 
twenty years since, but, after some j-ears, removed 
to Sacramento, where he has succeeeed in building- 
up a lucrative practice and a reputation for being 
one of the best informed men of the State. His 
acquirements are substantial and useful. Having 
little taste for the poetical adornments which orna- 
mented the orations of Baker and other famous 
speakers, he deals in hard, incontrovertible facts, 
piling them up mountain ,high, leaving no possible 
escape for his adversary. He is still in the prime of 
life, and has promise of many years of usefulness. 

Honorable Samuel B. Axtell was one of those 
cold, reticent men whose suaviter in modo won the 
respect rather than the friendship of men. Indeed, 
he did not care for f-he friendship of many, and those 
such as could be of use to him. He was possessed 
of a high sense of honor, polished in manner, and 
uncompromising in his zeal when in pursuit of some 
purpose, and he always had a purpose in view. As 
an advocate, and especially in jury trials, he had few 
equals in method, terseness of expression, and clear- 
ness of style. Educated at Oberlin College, in his 
native State, Ohio, his earliest forensic efforts, were 
in behalf of abolitionism; he afterwards went South, 
and there became imbued with Southern ideas and 
proclivities; settled in Jackson as early as 1853, and 
was elected the first District Attorney in 1854, and 
was re-elected in 1856, making a most excellent offi- 
cer, firm and unflinching in the performance of his 
duties, but never over zealous to the extent of per- 
secution. He subsequently removed to San Fran- 
cisco, and was there elected to Congress, where he 
was converted to Republicanism, having theretofore 
been a Democrat. He has never since returned to 
California, but was appointed Governor of Utah, 
and subsequently Governor of New Mexico, where 
his policy of Mormon conciliation became so obnox- 
ious to the Government that he was recalled. His 
merits, however, seemed not to have been ignored, 
for recently the position of Receiver of Public 
Moneys in Idaho was tendered him, but whether he 
accepted has not transpired. 

Pobert M. Briggs. There has been no more 
active lawyer or politician in Amador than R. M. 
Briggs. His petite form seemed made up of a bun- 
dle of nerves, as unconscious of fatigue as the wires 
of an electric battery, which seemed to flash to his 
brain and concentrate there all the vast vitality 
which nature had so bound together, whenever occa- 
sion demanded. He was always ready for a speech, 
at the Bar or on the stump, and never failed to hold 
together and enthuse his audience. Unexpected 
bursts of eloquence were sandwiched between per- 
tinent anecdotes in such profusion that his speeches 
were always received with unbounded applause. As 
an illustration of his oratorical power, the closing of 
a speech he made before the Fiddletown Scott and 



Graham Club, in 1852, is given. After expatiating 
upon the character of Scott, his services in the wars 
of 1812, and with Mexico, he electrified his hearers 
with these words: — 

"When the end of all things shall have come; 
when the last great trump shall have sounded; 
when the angel of death shall be standing with one 
foot on the sea and the other on the land, swearing 
that time shall be no more; when the solid mount- 
ains of granite are rocking to their very foundations; 
the stars falling from their places in the heavens, 
and revolving worlds are wheeling into annihilation, 
then shall the names of Scott and Graham appear 
written all over the sky in letters of living fire ! " 

In 1861 a monster mass Union meeting was held" 
in San Francisco, at which, it was announced, promi- 
nent speakers from every county in the State would be 
present. Briggs, who happened to be in the city at 
the time, was on the programme, from Amador. 
The meeting, which was a great success, was 
addressed by Colonel Baker and other noted ora- 
tors, and immense enthusiasm was manifested by 
the enormous concourse of people present. The 
press of San Francisco concurred in the statement 
that by far the best and most soul-stirring speech of 
the evening was that of R. M. Briggs, of Amador. 
As no extended reports of the speeches were given, 
the friends of Briggs interviewed him to ascertain 
what he said that so eclipsed the orators of the 
Pacific. He declared that he could not recollect a 
word. He said that upon being informed by the 
committee that he would be called upon, he endeav- 
ored to arrange his ideas into some form suitable to 
the occasion, and, toward evening sought to ascer- 
tain at about what time in the evening he would be 
called upon, that he might be enabled to cut his fuse 
the right length; that the committee seemed to have 
entirely forgotten him, and he concluded he had been 

left out in the cold, which made him so d d mad 

that he went to a neighboring saloon and imbibed 
brandy and water, one glassful upon another, to 
drown his disappointment, until he became — well — 
pretty well elevated. 

Late in the evening some one came in and said, 
"Briggs, they are calling for you." He started up 
toward the place of meeting on the plaza, where the 
speakers' stand was a narrow balcony. He was 
conscious that in his condition he would not be able 
to stand there a moment, but would fall headlong 
into the crowd below. He, therefore, took a dry- 
goods box which was near at hand, and placingiton 
the sidewalk mounted it, remarking that he was one 
of the people, and did not desire to get above them — 
preferred to be with them and of them — and then 
commenced his speech. His remembrance of the 
occasion was confined to the vociferous applause and 
enthusiasm, the like of which, he says, he never 
heard. Sob: j r persons present declared that the 
crowd had listened to Baker and others until they 



l'm; 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



were fully oharged, :m<l only required to I"- touched 
off to cause it to burst forth into a terrific explosion; 
Briggs' anion pyrotechnics, in which appeared the 
"glorious old flag," the "American eagle," "liberty 
and equality," " union now and forever," like tbo 
colors of a revolving kaleidoscope, was the torch. 
Briggs obtained the Bobriquet of " Brother Crawford " 
by bis forensic illusl rations of his adieus, as well 
as those of Others made to the Democratic party, by 
repeating a sermon of a divine named Crawford, in 
which was related the circumstances of his departure 
from the field of his former labors, and in which the 
preacher narrated how he visited each object with 
which long association had made him familiar and to 
which he had become endeared, and each in turn 
seemed to say to him, "Farewell, Brother Crawford!" 
that as he rode down the lane upon his horse, the 
trees and grain in the adjacent fields seemed to 
solemnly nod to him and say, "Farewell, Brother 
Crawford; " that the very stones of the wall that 
marked the lane seemed possessed of melancholy 
voices, which cried out, "Farewell, Brother Craw- 
ford! " that his horse took fright at a hog that rushed 
across the lane before him, reared and plunged, and 
throwing his rider in the ditch, speeded down the 
road with heels flying in the air, seeming to snort 
aloud, " Farewell, Brother Crawford! " 

Briggs was by no means deficient in talent as a 
writer, and as the editor of the local papers, attained 
a well-earned reputation. He once wrote for his 
paper a lengthy article on Mexican affairs during 
the French invasion, which was re-published in 
pamphlet form, and widely distributed in the Eastern 
States, and, not improbably, had an influence upon 
the Administration in taking its decisive position 
against foreign occupation. He was a native of 
Illinois, developed his muscle in the lead mines, was 
a dry-goods clerk in Galena, afterwards moved to 
Grant county, Wisconsin, where he studied law, 
and was elected to the Legislature in 1851, and 
came to California in 1852. He was elected Assem- 
blyman, and twice District Attorney, in Amador; 
was appointed Register of the General Land Office 
at Independence, and is now Superior Judge of 
Mono county, residing at Bodie. 

Hon. A. C. Brown, born at St. Charles, Missouri, 
January 10, 1816, crossed the plains from Lancaster' 
Grant county, Wisconsin, when he was admitted to 
practice in March, 1849, and settled in Jackson in 
September, 1851, where be has ever since resided, 
and where he is now engaged in the practice of his 
profession, having been admitted to the District 
Court in 1851, and to the Supreme Court in 1879. 
For three several terms he served in the Territorial 
and State Legislature of Wisconsin, and three times 
represented Amador county in the Assembly; was 
County Judge from 1877 up to the time the new 
State Constitution went into effect in 1880. He has 
ever been an active politician, not a radical, but 



professed Democrat, and a staunch supporter of the 
Union canst; during the Rebellion. The father of 
B large family, and possessed of considerable wealth, 
chiefly invested in improved town property, he has 
ever been regarded as one of the substantial citizens 
of Amador county. More than once the fire-fiend 
has swept away his possessions, but his energy 
planned more imposing structures before the ashes 
were cold. 

Nash Couwitii Bluggs was one of the few young 
men raised in California who preferred study to such 
pastimes as the freedom of our early society tolera- 
ted. He was born in Hannibal, Missouri, February 
1, 1838, removed to Grant county, Wisconsin, in 
1849, and, in 1852, came to California with his father, 
Hon. R. M. Briggs, and resided in Jackson from 1854 
to 1864, where he studied law, and, being admitted 
by the District Court, formed a law copartnership 
with his father, in 1860. In 1834 he removed to 
Alpine county, and upon its organization was elected 
District Attorney in that year, was re-elected in 
1866, and again in 1868. In December of the latter 
year he removed to Hollister, and upon the organ- 
ization of San Benito county, in 1874, was elected 
District Attorney, and re-elected in 1876. He mar- 
ried Miss Annie Barton, who was a native of Jack- 
son, and has an interesting family at Hollister, 
where he is now associated in the practice of the 
law with N. A. Hawkins; was admitted to the 
Supreme Court in October, 1869. 

Hon. R. Burnell, though a lawyer by education, 
was better known as a politician. He was a native 
of New York, was a stock-raiser in eai'ly days, hav- 
ing accumulated something like fifty thousand dol- 
lars in raising cattle on the Sacramento plains. 
His career as a politician is related in the body of 
this history, and need not be repeated here. After 
the termination of his political career he removed 
to Napa, where he formed a law partnership with 
bis brother-in-law, Chancellor Hartson, with whom 
he remained until his death, a year or two since. 

A. Caminetti is a young man of Italian birth and 
California raising. He commenced the study of law 
under the tuition of Farley & Pawling, was admit- 
ted to practice iu 1877, and two years later was 
elected Prosecuting Attorney, a position he has filled 
with marked ability. He is brilliant, thorough, and 
persevering, an easy and graceful speaker, with a 
good degree of that elasticity of temperament which 
enables him to adapt himself to circumstances. He 
has a promising future before him. He is Demo- 
cratic in politics, and had his name on the ticket for 
electors at the last Presidential contest. He did 
good service for his party in the campaign of 1880. 

Hon. H. A. Carter is a native of New York, 
where he studied and practiced law previous to com- 
ing to California, which was in 1849. He was the 
first District Attorney of Calaveras county, and has 



SKETCHES OF AMADOR COUNTY BAR. 



287 



witnessed all tbe squabbles for the county seat since 
the time that Double Springs, with but one house, 
was the place of justice, and the jury-room the shadeof 
a tree. His habit of advising litigants to settle with- 
out a lawsuit has militated against his success as a 
lawyer, but has made him a most valuable citizen 
and neighbor. He has generally rested content with 
being the Pericles of his county, the man in whom 
all had unbounded confidence. He is a man of 
extensive and general information, communicative in 
his character, with a keen sense of the ludicrous, and 
tells a splendid story. He has spent the larger por- 
tion of life in the cultivation of the soil, preferring 
the comforts of home and the companionship of his 
neighbors to the turmoils of politics or the law. He 
was seduced into running for the Assembly in 1875, 
traveled over the county, smoked and joked with 
his friends, told some of his best stories, and was 
triumphantly elected, fairly walking over the course. 
It will be perceived that his strength as a lawyer is 
in advising every one to keep out of lawsuits. 
According to lawyers themselves, Judge Carter, if 
he had turned the force of his character that way, 
would have excelled in the high courts as a judge in 
equity. 

Judge Cook was a resident of Volcano for several 
years previous to the organization of Alpine county, 
and made quite a reputation as a safe and cautious 
counselor. He was well informed on general topics, 
dignified and courteous in his bearing, a gentleman 
of the old school. After the organization of Alpine 
he removed to that county, where he was quite 
prominent for several years. He has, in consequence 
of advancing age, mostly retired from the practice 
of the law. 

Hon. W. W. Cope. Amador has had but one 
representative upon the bench of the Supreme 
Court, and he, like all others of her citizens, when 
called upon to exercise official functions, was 
not found wanting either in ability or integrity. 
His professional experience in the semi-agricul- 
tural and semi-mineral regions of the foot-hills, fitted 
him well to consider and intelligently decide the 
many new and difficult questions, affecting these two 
great interests of our State, and both the farmer and 
the miner arc much indebted to his wisdom and 
foresight in establishing legal rules adjusting their 
respective rights. 

Judge Cope was born in Kentucky on the 29th of 
January, 1824, where he studied law, and was 
admitted to practice, coming to California in 1850. 
Like most early pioneers he believed that fickle for- 
tune's blandest smiles were easier won in other 
vocations than a profession, and he did not engage 
exclusively in the practice of the law until the organ- 
ization of Amador county in 1854, when he opened 
his law office at Jackson, where alone and in part- 
nership with James P. Hubbard, and with R. M. 
Briggs, he took a leading position at the Bar. In 



1858, he was elected to the Assembly, and was made 
chairman of the judiciary committee. An appre- 
ciation of his services in that position was made 
manifest by his being elected Associate Justice of 
the Supreme Court the following year. After his 
election and previous to his entering upon the duties 
of his judicial position, Judge Terry, then Chief 
Justice, resigned, and Judge Cope was appointed to 
fill the vacancy. He remained upon the Supreme 
Bench until the 1st of January, 1864, having, as his 
associates during that time, Field, Baldwin, Norton, 
and Crocker. A short time after leaving the bench, 
he removed to San Francisco, where he is now asso- 
ciated with J. Thomas Boyd, and is enjoying a lucra- 
tive and high order of practice. 

W. T. Curtis came from Ohio in an early day, 
making his home at Drytown. He was a man of 
fine culture, gentlemanly in manner, and much more 
disposed to advise a peaceful settlement of a diffi- 
culty than costly litigation. He usually made him- 
self prominent in allaying, rather than fomenting, 
the riotous spirit which so commonly existed in the 
mining towns in an early day. He was especially 
prominent in mitigating the not inexcusable anger 
of the population after the atrocious murders at 
Rancheria. He was a Republican in sentiment, and 
a candidate for District Attorney on the same ticket 
which was headed with the name of John C. Fremont, 
in 1856. He stumped the county for Fremont, speak- 
ing in every place of any size. His candor and 
gentlemanly qualities were appreciated by friends 
and opponents alike, and he was always respectfully 
listened to. On the breaking out of the Rebellion, 
he joined the Union army as aid to an officer in high 
rank. From the best information attainable, he was 
killed early in the contest. 

Hon. John A. Eagon is a native of Virginia, and 
came to this State in 1851, and from the first made 
his home in Amador county. He mined for a time 
at Lower Rancheria with considerable success, hav- 
ing the good fortune to pick up a four-pound lump. 
He was engaged afterwards in mining near lone. 
It was during his residence there that he began to 
be known for his conversational powers, which indi- 
cated his logical turn of mind, and led him to the 
adoption of the law as a profession. He has gradu- 
ally worked up both professionally and politically, 
until he has become one of the leading men. As his 
name is connected with most of the prominent events 
in the county, related in another part of the history, 
it is unnecessary to repeat them here. He has a 
peculiarly earnest, nervous style of argument, replete 
with facts, but nearly destitute of humor, his speeches 
reminding one much of those of Silas Wright, in his 
best days. He is still young and vigorous, with no 
demoralizing habits, and is likely to go much higher 
before he pauses in his advancing career. 

Hon. James T. Farley, one of the present United 
States Senators from California, is a native of Vir- 



288 



BISTORT OF A.MA.DOB COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



ginia, He was Bome time in the University of Vir- 
ginia, but did nol graduate, however. After spending 

Borne years in Miss i, be emigrated to California, 

arriving in 1850. He commenced the study of the 
law in Volcano, his firsl casea being injustice Ste- 
phenson's court in 1854, llr early entered into politics, 
ami became famous for bis Buccesa in attaching the 
voters to his interests. He was elected to the Assem- 
bly in 1854, re-elected in 1855, and made speaker. 
»»n the breaking up of the American party, lie allied 
himself with the Democracy, where he has since 
remained. During the early years of the Rebellion, 
he was a Lecompton Democrat, and Buffered defeat 
in company with other nominees of that party. 
After the union of the Republicans with the Doug- 
las Democrats, his star began to rise, and he was 
twice elected to the State Senate by majorities far 
greater than the average of his ticket. His ability 
a- a legislator is unquestioned; the same intuitive 
knowledge of human nature comino- into use amonsr 
the Solons of the capital as well as in a country 
town. Perhaps the best work, or at least the work 
involving the most comprehensive reasoning, was his 
report, as chairman of the Committee on Incorpora- 
tions, on the bill regulating fares and freights. In 
1S7S be was elected to the United States Senate, and 
took his seat in 1879. 

As a lawyer he is most efficient as a jury pleader. 
lie has little of the overbearing character generally 
thought necessary in badgering a refractory or reti- 
cent witness; never arouses the antagonism of jury 
or witness by an abuse of his position; yet few wit- 
nesses can boast of carrying away any honors in a 
contest with him. 

As a politician, he is strong in the ability to organ- 
ize, uniting his friends and dividing his enemies. 
His private character is above reproach. lie is 
genial in manner, sympathetic in feeling, making 
friends where possible. lie is still on the sunny side 
of fifty, hale and hearty, having fortunately escaped 
the social perils which beset the paths of Californian 
politicians. Having apparently many years of hard 
work in him, it is quite possible that he may attain 
one of the two higher positions possible in his polit- 
ical career. 

George L. Gale, though he did not often appear in 
court, generally having other business to attend to, 
was was one of them — i. e. the lawyers — in spirit 
and education. He was a native of Massachusetts, 
born, as he was wont to state, at the foot of Bunker 
Hill, and belonged to the true chivalry of the country, 
the " Bunker Hill chivalry." by which means he came 
to be known as Bunker Hill Gale. He was 
extremely original in his methods of reasoning, sharp 
rapid and incisive in his language, prompt in decision, 
and quick in action. To contend with him on any 
subject was to meet a rattling fire of musketry, 
brilliant thrust of rapiers, and pyrotechnical flashes 
that dazzled and confused the ordinary mind. He 
made a splendid Justice of the Peace, and bis 



decisions were hardly ever reversed in the higher 
courts, though he was too brilliant to become pro- 
found in the law, loving rather to deal with its 
puzzling technicalities. He would have filled the 
seal of paragraphisl in a modern editorial room to 
perfection, his keen sense of the ludicrous and 
trenchant wit qualifying him for the position of critic. 
Mis sayingB and doing8 would (ill a good-sized book. 
He was once appointed sealer of freights and 
measures, and collected double fees by sealing them 
for the year past and then for the coming year on 
the same day. Upon being remonstrated with for 
exacting fees for two years, he told them, "either 
pay it or render yourselves liable to a fine for selling 
goods with unsealed weights and measures." The 
subjects, knowing Gales' strength in law technical- 
ities, usually paid, though with much grumbling. 
He had no family, and died in obscurity a few years 
ago at. Pine Grove. 

John C. Gear was a young man who alternated 
the practice of law with mining and teaching school, 
in the vicinity of lone. He was brilliant and enthus- 
iastic, with many qualities that go to make up an 
orator. He died at lone before he had the opportu- 
nity to make bis mark in his profession. 

Hon. Marion W. Gordon is a native of Tennessee, 
of Irish descent. In early life be was a professor of 
elocution, and traveled extensively, lecturing on, and 
teaching the art. lie w T as at different times con- 
nected with some of the leading papers in Missouri, 
and was associated with many of the prominent pol- 
iticians, in shaping the policy of that State after the 
overthrow of the Benton regime. He came to Cali- 
fornia in 1850, and soon after located in Volcano, 
forming one of the coterie of philosophers heretofore 
referred to, who discussed questions of the lofty 
character which have employed such minds as 
Hegel, Descartes, Comte, Mills, and Spencer. In 
Judge Gordon's case, however, he mingled hard 
work with hard thinking, and in 1852-53 could be 
seen swinging the pick and shovel in the Volcano 
tail-race, which he, with others, cut through the 
deep flat. In 1853, in compliance with the wishes of 
many friends, he came before the county Conven- 
tion for the nomination for member of the Assembly 
for Calaveras county, which he received. After a 
well-contested canvass he came out victorious, and 
took his seat in the Legislature one of the last of 
the old Calaveras delegation.* On the organization of 
Amador county he was elected to the position of 
County Judge, which he held for three consecutive 
terms. 

Judge Gordon is a man of varied accomplish- 
ments and general information. Scarcely any topic 
can be introduced which has not been read up by 
Mesmerism, animal magnetism, clairvoyance, 



him. 



and all the modern occult sciences have been, at times, 



"His name was omitted in the list of members of tbat year 
through a typographical error. 



.-Vf*. 



I ^"** "^ 




*8B 



m 



JAMES.MEEHAN. 



S.O/V <£• W£ST. PUB, OAHIAHO, CAt.* 



SKETCHES OF AMADOR COUNTY BAR. 



289 



assayed in his mental laboratory. His midnight lamp 
was often burning when all else was buried in deep 
slumber. As a politician he had few superiors. The 
habit of judging men and organizing them into solid 
parties was to him a matter of instinct, accomplished 
without serious effort. His ability to adapt his 
speech to the capacity of his hearers was remarka- 
ble. A scowling face was discerned, and the latent 
opposition neutralized by a happy allusion. Whether 
before a crowd of rough miners, a body of school- 
teachers, a convention of musicians, or an assembly 
of wary politicians, this faculty never failed him. 
As a lawyer, he dealt rather in the general princi- 
ples than in the technicalities. His love for general- 
ization, and a consequent knowledge of the laws of 
equity, enabled him to easily perform the duties of 
Judge. In Congress his general information and 
knowledge of the human heart would have enabled 
him to have taken high rank. That he never went 
to Congress is a matter of regret. That so many, 
vastly his inferiors, have found their way there, is, 
and will be, a mystery. Though his mental powers 
are still vigorous, he has retired from active practice, 
and is spending his old age in dignified leisure. 

Thomas D. Grant was born, and educated for the 
law, in the State of New York. His early associa- 
tions were with such legal luminaries as Judge 
Spencer and lawyers of his ilk, from whom he 
imbibed a true respect for, and due appreciation of, 
the honor and dignity of his profession, which he 
regarded above all others. This, coupled with his 
proverbial honesty and integrity, inspired a public 
confidence that secured to him a very desirable 
clientage. When the writer of this was first nomi- 
nated for District Attorney, he was associated with 
Judge Grant in practice. The Judge Avas bitterly 
opposed to politics, and declared if the candidate 
persisted in running for office, he would dissolve 
their copartnership, and defeat him if possible. The 
young aspirant did persist, and a dissolution fol- 
lowed. When the votes were counted it was found 
that out of seventy-eight votes polled at a precinct 
down in the deep gorge of the Mokelumne river, 
six or eight miles from Jackson, where the Judge 
resided, the writer received more than seventy, 
although he was an entire stranger in the locality. 
Believing that this large vote was not wholly due 
to the fact that he was unknown, he instituted 
inquiries, and ascertained that the Judge, — being 
too heavy (some four hundred avoirdupois) to ride 
on horseback, and the roads being altogether too 
steep for a carriage, — had secretly walked down and 
back to the Bar, where he had formerly mined, 
and was loved and respected by all, and stuffed — 
not the ballot-box — but the voters, with the theory 
that the candidate was worthy of their suffrages. 
This is given as illustrative of the character of the 
man. Although he was rude and rough at times, 
in his words and deportment, his heart was in size 
proportionate to his Falstaffian physique — over-flow- 
37 



ing with true sympathy and noble impulses — its 
beatings the power that moved his hands to the 
performance of generous deeds. When he died, in 
Jackson, 1859, the community lost one of God's 
noblest works— an honest man. 

Hon. James H. Hardy had the brain of some 
fabled Lycurgus, and possessed the fecundity of a 
Jupiter's; the bare assertion that "Jim" Hardy 
sprang therefrom fully armed for the legal arena 
would require strong refutation. No one could tell 
when he applied himself to his books, and yet he was 
an animated encyclopcedia of legal decisions, from 
the earliest to the latest. When he was upon the 
bench, attorneys become careless and would simply 
state that the Supreme Court had so decided, and 
wait for the Judge to tell them the title of the case, 
and in what volume it could be found. He possessed, 
in a marked degree, the two qualities, one at least of 
which is essential to success in the legal practice, but 
seldom found combined in one — eloquence and a clear 
knowledge and comprehension of the law. In the 
absence of a native talent for these, he could scarcely 
have reached the prominence at the Bar he attained, 
since he preferred the social companionship of his 
host of friends to the studious application most men 
find essential to a legal reputation. Judge Hardy 
was born in Hamilton county, Illinois, on the 
third day of April, 1832; first studied law with his 
father, and afterwards with Hon. S. S.Marshall; was 
admitted to practice in Illinois, where, notwithstand- 
ing his extreme youth, he acquired quite an extensive 
reputation as a lawyer, and came to California in 
1852, locating at Sacramento; subsequently, he 
removed to Jackson, and, upon the creation of the 
Sixteenth Judicial District with the counties of Ama- 
dor and Calaveras in 1859, was appointed Judge of 
the new district, to which position he was elected by 
a flattering majority, at the next following election. 
As a Democrat he always took prominent part in poli- 
tics; was District Attorney of Sacramento county, and 
ran as a Breckinridge elector in 1856. In his numer- 
ous "stumping" excursions through the State, he 
always denied that he was out electioneering, but 
asserted that he was hunting for an ox which he 
lost while crossing the plains in '50. It is related 
of him that his first appearance in court at Sacra- 
mento was upon the recommendation of a friend who 
had known him in Illinois. "Jim" was found hard 
at work in a bakery, and at first declined to take the 
ease, alleging his lack of recent practice, etc., but 
after much urging went into court without changing 
his garments, white with " miller's dust." The 
opposing counsel, who was somewhat overbearing 
and pompous in his manner, inquired who repre- 
sented the other side. Young Hardy was pointed 
out to him, when he sneeringly asked, " And who is 
Mr. Hardy ? I have not the pleasure of his acquain- 
tance." Hardy immediately caught up a large 
volume lying upon the table, and hurling it at the 
interrogator, with great force exclaimed, " You will 



290 



BISTORT OF AMADOU. COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



not require any further introduction the next time 
wo mcel !" Hardy was fined fifty dollars for contempt, 
hut proceeded with his case, convincing bis oppo- 
nent, as well us others who listened, that "Jim" 
[lardy was not to be despised even in his baker's 
uniform. 

Swn ii. .1. K. IIa.ndv was a native of .Maryland, 
of the Virginia school of gentlemen, polished and 
accomplished, blending dignity and kindness together, 
lie was prominent before the State Convention, in 
L856, as a candidate tor Congress; failing in which, 
he left the county. Bis present, residence, if living, 
is unknown. As ho was somewhat advanced in 
years at the time of his residence here, it is likely 
that he has accomplished his work. 

Alvinza IJaywaed probably had at one time some 
aspirations for a professional career, but rich quartz 
mines absorbed bis attention, so that he had little 
time for thoughts of the law except as it concerned 
his own extensive business. lie will be remembered 
as the man who developed the richest gold mine on 
the coast, and in that connection bis history is 
related in another portion of this book. 

James F. Hubbard was formerly a surveyor, but 
concluding that he could see to better advantage 
through the intricacies of the law than through the 
theodolite, he threw aside the chain and compass, 
and commenced Blackstone and Kent. Iiis hopes 
and anticipations were fully realized, and, in due 
course of time, he took his seat at the Bar, and built 
up a most valuable practice. lie was in company 
with several of the prominent lawyers at Jackson 
at different times. Though not considered a bril- 
liant pleader, his opinion was highly valued. About 
the years 1862 or '63, he removed to San Francisco, 
where he practiced with fair success for a few years, 
finally returning to New York, his native State. 

Hon. P. C. Johnson* Though Mr. Johnson occu- 
pied the attention of the county for some years, very 
little is known of his antecedents. He came into the 
county from El Dorado in 1855, in company with 
T. A. Springer, who established the Volcano Ledjer 
that year. Though admitted to the Bar he scarcely 
ever appeared in court, giving most of his attention 
to literary matters. He was a brilliant writer, and 
was connected with the Lecljer for many years as 
assistant or chief editor. He was elected to the 
Legislature in 1859, and died at the house of T. A. 
Springer in Jackson, in 1862. Though possessed of 
wiany excellent and brilliant qualities, they were 
impaired by a social weakness, which eventually 
terminated his life. 

L. N. Ketchum was brought into public notice in 
1857, when he was elected to the State Senate, being 
then a resident of Clinton, where he had been 
mining. He made his mark as a legislator, and then 

*His name does not appear in the cmtinuous history as mem- 
ber of Legislature for that year. The accounts were made up 
from the Supervisor's records, which were very imperfect — Ed. 



studied law. Possessed of great colloquial powers 
and an excellenl education, it is not surprising that 
he met with success in his new vocation. He prac- 
ticed, however, but little in Amador county, but 
removed to Siskiyou county, where he enjoyed a 
fine practice and was elected District Attorney. He 
died at Yreka several years ago. 

l\\i ETTB .Mace was admitted to the practice of 
law many years since, but owing to his extensive 
operations in saw-mills, quartz-mills and farming, he 
has »-iven the law little attention since, except as it 
was incidental in his business operations. 

ilos. Georwe Moore, the present Superior Judge 
of Amador county, was born in Davisville, Boyle 
county, Kentucky, February 14, 1850; graduated 
at Centre College in the class of 1870, and after pur- 
suing the study of law for two years under the tuition 
of Hon. M. J. Durham, of Kentucky, attended the law 
school of Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachu- 
setts, and was admitted to the Bar in 1874. In the 
political campaign of 1876 he was appointed one of 
the Tilden and Hendricks electors, and came to Cal- 
ifornia in the Fall of 1877, settling in Amador county. 
He entered upon the discharge of his duties as the 
first Superior Judge of Amador county, under the 
New Constitution, on the first Monday of January, 
18S0. He married Mrs. V. B. Lackey, also a native 
of Kentucky, in 1879, and now resides in Jackson. 

Jonathan Palmer was admitted to practice on the 
organization of the county. His residence was in 
Oleta (then Fiddletown), and he divided his time 
about evenly between mining and the study of the 
law. He acted as Justice of the Peace as early as 
1852. He was a man of solid rather than showy 
acquirements, and in the matter of oratory was 
eclipsed by B. M. Briggs, who was a resident there 
at the same time. He was one of the discoverers of 
the famous American hill, and to the fact of having 
a rich claim is probably due the little interest he 
took in legal matters. He has drifted out of sight 
in recent years. 

Hon. Thomas M. Pawling, a native of Philadel- 
phia, whose lawyers have been traditionally the 
" hardest to puzzle " of any of their class, located at 
Volcano in 1855, where he was law partner of Hon. 
James T. Farley; was elected County Clerk in 185S, 
and upon the expiration of his official term resumed 
practice at Jackson, with J. G. Severance as his pai't- 
ner. Upon the discovery of the mines in Esmeralda 
county, he removed to Aurora, where he acquired 
considerable wealth, but returned to Jackson in 1865, 
and again formed a copartnership with Mr. Farley, 
and continued his practice until 1871, when he was 
appointed by Governor Haight to fill the position of 
County Judge, made vacant by the death of Hon. 
J. Foot Turner, to which office he was subsequently 
twice elected by the people. Judge Pawling made 
no great pretentions to oratory, but excelled as an 
" office lawyer," and had few superiors in the prepara- 



SKETCHES OF AMADOR COUNTY BAR 



291 



tion of legal documents, lie died at Jackson, Janu- 
ary 21, 1877, while County Judge, at about fifty years 
of age. 

T. J. Phelps is a native of Kentucky; came to Cal- 
ifornia in 1849, and to Amador county, as since organ- 
ized, in 1852; residing in Oleta until elected District 
Attorney in 1873, a position he filled with distinction 
for four years. Mr. Phelps has been identified with 
the material interests of the county since his resi- 
dence here. He was one of the first to recognize the 
practicability of conveying water to the mines — the 
ditch from the north fork of Dry creek in which he 
was part owner being not only among the first, but 
among the most profitable of any that were ever con- 
structed in the county. As a lawyer, Mr. Phelps is 
a counselor rather than an advocate, and much more 
disposed to heal dtssentions than promote them. He 
has ever been distinguished as an upright and honor- 
able man, modest and unassuming, but equal to any 
emergency -that has ever called him to action. 

Silas Penrt is a native of Texas; coming to Cal- 
ifornia at a very early age, he has made himself 
what he is in this State. He is still quite young, 
both in years and in his profession, but has the prom- 
ise of being brilliant and useful. His life has been 
somewhat shadowed by the unfortunate affair re- 
sulting in the death of Elisha Turner, an intimate 
friend of his. On his trial the courts and public; sen- 
timent exonerated him of all malice, and it is quite 
certain that no other blame can attach to him than 
that of thoughtlessly using his weapon in a case of 
mutually angry words. It is believed that he will 
outgrow his self reproach, and attain the position to 
which his talents entitle him. 

Alonzo Platt was from the State of New York: 
was one of the original movers in the mutter of the 
organization of Amador county, and one of the com- 
missioners appointed by the Governor to establish 
the new county government and call an election for 
county officers. He was considerable of a politician 
of the old school, and came up for office several times; 
but as he did not have the plasticity of character 
necessary to succeed, he was distanced in the race by 
Messrs. Farley, Gordon, Cope, Briggsand Axtell, and 
withdrew from public notice. 

J. W. Porter is a native of Pennsylvania; came 
to California in an early day and engaged in mining, 
perhaps rather to obtain the means of gratifying his 
love of reading than with the expectation of making 
a fortune. Jt was observed of him, however, that 
much of his mining was experimental, rather to 
prove or disprove some theory regarding the deposits 
of gold, than as a means of acquiring immediate 
wealth. The hole which he sunk in the head of 
Soldier's gulch, one hundred and fifty feet deep, 
under the impression that gold would be found all 
the way to the bed-rock, was a case in point. The 
gold was found to that depth, proving his theory, 
but it was not in sufficient quantity to make his dis- 



covery valuable. His reading was largely ancient 
history, which caused the remark to be made, perhaps 
with some degree of truth, that he was more of a 
Roman than an American citizen; at any rate, he 
has many Roman virtues, such as sobriety, stern 
integrity, fortitude, and none of those weaknesses 
which endear some of our public men to the average 
voter, for no man could say that he had tried him 
drunk and tried him sober, for he was always sober. 
His aversion to the ordinary method of conducting 
a political campaign has prevented him from seeking 
office, for but once was he ever tempted to have his 
name placed on a ticket, when he ran for County 
Judge against M. W. Gordon, coming within a few 
votes of being elected. He refused to electioneer; 
some of his friends remarking that Porter would not 
solicit a vote if that one would elect him. His 
peculiar character of mind eminently fitted him for a 
judge, but did not fit him for getting the position 
which depended so much on personal popularity, 
though his utter contempt for human weakness 
mi"ht have made him a severe iud<>'e in criminal 

o JO 

cases. Once whde pleading before a Justice's Court, 
in the early fifties, in Volcano, he was interrupted 
by a half-drunken Irishman with threats of per.-onal 
violence unless he ceased his offensive remarks. 
Porter bore the interruptions for a while, but as the 
court did not seem inclined to protect him he caught 
up a black-snake whip, which was near by, and 
lashed the Hibernian until he cried for mercy, after 
which he proceeded in his speech without apparently 
noticing the interruption. As might be expected, 
Mr. Porter remains a single man. 

Reynolds was a Judge of the Court of First 

Instance, or as it was called, Alcalde, in some of the 
earlier settlements in 1830, and, in consequence, 
claimed a membership with the Bar, and was 
admitted to practice upon the organization of Ama- 
dor county. His legal acquirements were rather 
limited, but in the chaotic condition of society 
twenty-five years since, he obtained some practice in 
the inferior courts. He was not remarkable for any- 
thing but pretension, and soon dropped out of sight. 

J. A. Robinson is a native of Ohio, was born in 
1838, removed to Illinois in 1858, enlisted April 23, 
1861, in the Eighth Regiment of Infant^, Illinois 
Volunteers, and served under General Oglesby until 
discharged for disability incurred in the service. lie 
came to California in 1863 and settled in Jackson; 
was at different times County Clerk, and Assistant 
United States Assessor, for Amador county. He 
completed his law studies, and was admitted to 
practice in 1866; removed to San Francisco in 1871, 
where, for several years, he was chief clerk in the 
United States Surveyor-General's office, under Har- 
denburg and his successors. He is now practicing 
law in San Francisco, making land cases a specialty, 
his long training in that business giving him great 
familiarity with the origin and perfection of land 



292 



HISTORY OF AMADOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



titles. Ho resides in Oakland, and has several time* 
Itch before 1 1 ■ *. - public in connection with municipal 
offices. His training and natural temperament 
peculiarly lit bim for investigations of complex land 
titles, and be is enjoying a remunerative and exten- 
sive practice. 

EIon. Geo. W. SeatoN was a lawyer, politician, and 
. quarts miner of considerable note in the early days 
of Amndor. Ho, like man)- members of the old Whig 
party, joined the Know-Nothing, or American party, 
and afterwards both Democratic and Republican par- 
ties by turns. He was elected to the State Senate 
in 1865 by the Democratic party, but perished in the 
explosion of the steamer Yosemite, on the Sacra- 
mento, before taking bis seat. He was a man of 
strong will and great energy, and when a move 
was decided upon it never failed for want of persist- 
ent action. His style of speech was, like the man, 
more forcible than elegant. He made no pretensions 
to learning or elegance, but appealed to the com- 
mon sense of his auditors. He was better adapted 
to the forum than the Bar. 

Josiah Gould Severance is a native of Maine, 
born September 30, 1832. He prepared for college 
at Hampden Academy, and entered at Bowdoin in 
1852, but, at the solicitations of friends, withdrew 
without graduating, and entered upon the study of 
the law in the office of Hon. Hannibal Hamlin, at 
Hampden, where he remained for about a year, 
when he entered the law office of Hon. John E. God- 
frey, for years and now Probate Judge of Penobscot 
county, at Bangor; was admitted to the Supreme 
Judicial Court of that State in 1855, and arrived in 
San Francisco on the first day of January, 1856, and 
first located in the then flourishing mining town of 
Lancha Plana, Amador county. He was elected a 
member of the Board of Supervisors in the Fall of 
1856, and in 1858, District Attorney by the Douglas 
Democracy, having as his opponents Hon. S. B. 
Axtell, Breckinridge candidate, and John C. Gear, 
the straight Republican nominee; was active in 
the organization of the Union party in the county, 
in 1862, and was made chairman of its first County 
Central Committee ; ran for the Assembly, much 
against his will, that year, and, with the whole 
ticket, was defeated, coming, however, within twenty- 
nine votes of an election. In the Fall of 1862, he 
married Miss M. J. Tiel, of Jackson, and removed 
to Calaveras county, where he was elected District 
Attorney the following year, and re-elected in 1865. 
For some time he edited the Amador Ledyer, and 
was the proprietor and editor of the San Andreas 
Register. He is now engaged in his professional 
practice in San Francisco, where he has taken but 
little part in politics, although he there served for 
a time as assistant District Attorney, under D. J. 
Murphy, Esq., and ran on and was defeated with, 
the straight Eepublican ticket, as Delegate at Large 
to the late Constitutional Convention. 



MoSES Tebbs was a young man of rather promis- 
ing abilities who came to Volcano in 1855. Remain- 
ing but a few years he went to Alpine upon the 
organization of that county, where ho was heard 
from occasionally in connection with political mat- 
ters. His present residence is unknown. 

Henry L. Waldo was a native of Missouri, and 
made his way to California by way of Oregon. He 
early chose the law as his profession, and alternated 
study with hard work whenever he had the oppor- 
tunity, sometimes studying with his friends, sharing 
their hospitalities, and at other times becoming a 
habitant of a law office. His progress in his profes- 
sion was rapid. In 1869 he was elected District 
Attorney, which position he held to the close of the 
term, performing the duties to the satisfaction of all 
concerned. He declined a re-election, justly con- 
cluding that he could find a more honorable and 
lucrative position elsewhere. He now holds a high 
judicial position in the Territory of New Mexico. 
As an officer be was courteous, firm and upright, 
swerved from the right course neither by blandish- 
ments nor fear. During the excitement attending the 
lawless action of the Miner's League at Sutter Creek, 
he was informed that he would prosecute the rioters 
at the risk of his life. He turned to the belligerent 
leaguer and invited him to commence operations then 
and there, for he should perform his duty. 

[The biographies of the members of the Bar are 
somewhat limited, owing to the difficultj r of obtain- 
ing reliable data. Some are too modest to narrate 
the prominent events in their lives; some, perhaps, 
are apprehensive of a too critical review of their 
careers, some are negligent, and others have gone 
to that region from which no correspondence is 
permitted. If some things important are omitted 
and others exalted to undue importance, we can 
only say that after awaiting letters and information 
some time, the demand for copy compelled us to 
close the sketches with what we had on hand.] 

DROPS OF JUDICIAL WISDOM. 

Mr. Axtell relates the following of , 

whilom Justice of the Peace at Eancheria: During 
the progress of a trial by jury in his court, the 
expression, non compos mentis, was used. One of 
the jurors, with a laudable desire to fully understand 
the case, asked the Court the meaning of the term 
used. " It is," said his honor, with becoming dig- 
nity, "the process by which the attendance of wit- 
nesses from another county is obtained." As wit- 
nesses were present from El Dorado county, the 
answer was satisfactory. 

"Uncle Jake" Emminger was also Justice at 
Rancheria, and was very proud of his patriarchal 
beard, which he allowed to fall below his waist on 
Sundays and Court days, but carefully folded up on 
ordinaiy occasions. He was also proud of his politi- 
cal achievements in his township, where, by some 
coup de main, he obtained thirty-four votes out of a 



SKETCHES OF AMADOR COUNTY BAR. 



293 



possible sixty-seven in the whole township, and was, 
therefore, elected. It is said that he once sentenced 
a Chinaman to jail for life for stealing chickens, but 
afterwards excused the error, as being of the heart 
and not of the head, by claiming that had a shorter 
term been imposed his constituency would have 
hanged the culprit. In a case before "Uncle Jake" 
the defendant presented and read an affidavit for 
change of venue. The Court listened patiently, 
stroked his long beard gravely and thoughtfully for 
a few minutes, then said: "The affidavit of the 
defendant is overruled, and judgment rendered for 

the plaintiff in the sum of " "Hold on," cried 

the defendant, "if I must have my case tried by 
tliis Court, I demand a jury!" "What in h— , sir, 
do you expect to prove by a jury?" demanded the 
Judge in his most severe manner. 

"Judge" Hugh Robinson, an Irish gentleman of 
the old school, was for many years Justice of the 
Peace at Clinton, and mine host of the chief cara- 
vansary of the village. It was not a temperance 
tavern, and so great was the liberal hospitality of 
the " Judge," that even the Governor of North Caro- 
linia would have ceased his chronic complaint of "a 
long time between drinks," had he been his guest. 
S. B. Axtell and James F. Hubbard were once pitted 
against each other in a case before him. The testi- 
mony all in, the brief and terse argument of Mr. Axtell 
was listened to by the Court with marked attention, 
but the " linked sweetness " of Judge Hubbard's reply 
proved too much for the "Judge's" active tempera- 
ment, and under the combined influence of somno- 
lent logic and cordial hospitality, he fell asleep. 
Judge Hubbard had him aroused, and, in a some- 
what indignant manner, remarked that if his case 
was not properly considered he would appeal it to a 
higher court. "Appeal to h — , and be damned to 
ye!" cried the "Judge;" "judgment for the plaint- 
iff, and this court is adjourned ! " 

A marriage ceremony was once performed by one 
of the local Justices, so brilliant in its character that 
the name of the distinguished official, and the time 
and place, are omitted, that the honors may be 
equally divided. The candidates for matrimonial 
uncertainties presenting themselves before the magis- 
trate, he ordered the bridegroom elect to hold up his 
right hand, and, in his most impressive manner, 
said: "You do most solemnly swear that you are 
twenty-one years of age; that you will support the 
Constitution of the United States, and of the State of 
California; that you will be a true, faithful, and obe- 
dient husband, and that you have not voted before 
this day, so help you God." What was said to the 
woman was not related. 

The case of Owens vs. Shackles, et al., was brought 
in Justice Palmer's court, at Lancha Plana, in Jan- 
uary, 1856, to determine the right of po-session to a 
mining claim. Henry Eno, who had been County 
Judge of Calaveras county, and was afterwards 
County Judge of Alpine county, was attorney for 



the plaintiff. The trial was had by jury, who ren- 
dered their verdict that the claim did not belong to 
either party. Without waiting for any action by 
the Court upon the verdict, there was a gen- 
eral rush of attorneys, clients, and witnesses for the 
disputed ground. It is said that Judge Eno, whose 
graj* hairs were streaming in the wind, raised by his 
Iroquois pace, would have won the race and (bound- 
ary) stakes, had not Shackles caught him by the 
coat-tail, and flung him aside, thus winning the race 
and suit, with Owens a very good second. 

Apropos of Judge Eno, a story is told which may 
not be out of place here, since his practice was quite 
as extensive in Amador as in Calaveras. While he 
was County Judge of Calaveras, a young man was 
tried and convicted before him, of a felony. Judge 
Brockway defended the prisoner in his usual able 
manner, and upon the arraignment of his client for 
sentence made a most feeling appeal to the Court 
for leniency, moving his auditors to tears, and 
apparently producing a deep impression upon the 
Court. After Avaiting a short time for the excitement 
to subside, Judge Eno said: "Prisoner, stand up! 
You have been indicted by the Grand Jury of this 
county for the crime of burglary, to which indict- 
ment you pleaded ' not guilty.' You have been fairly 
tried by a jury of your own selection, who find you 
guilty of the charge contained in the indictment, 
having been ably and well defended during that trial 
by eminent counsel. Your counsel has made a most 
touching and eloquent appeal to the Court for its 
sympathy and indulgence, calling attention to the 
apparent fact that you are but a boy in years; aver- 
ring that this is your first criminal offense; that you 
are the only son of one of our most respected and 
worthy citizens, and the idol of an almost broken- 
hearted mother; that the result of a long incarcera- 
tion would be ruin to your future, which might be 
fair and even brilliant. The Court is deeply 
impressed with these facts, and its sentence, there- 
fore, is, that you be taken by the Sheriff of this 
county to the State prison at San Quentin, and there 
be confined to hard labor for a term of fourteen 
years; and I only wish I could make it longer." 

The prisoner was, however, pardoned a short time 
after, and, to the credit of Judge Eno, be it said, he 
signed the petition for the pardon and exerted him- 
self in that behalf. 

A DISGUSTED CREDITOR. 

While Judge Gordon was County Judge andea? officio 
Judge of the Probate Court, and Jerry King was 
Public Administrator, two Swedes were drowned in 
the Mokelumne river, leaving, as was supposed, some 
property. King was duly appointed administrator 
of their estates. A few weeks after, an original 
specimen of humanity, with unkempt hair of an 
indescribable hue, crane neck and leathery features, 
his general appearance suggesting the idea of a 
dried-apple on the end of a ramrod, presented him- 
self before Judge Gordon, and making an awkward 



294 



BISTORY OF A M.\ Don, COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



bow of unusual vigor, and Blinging bia well-worn 
sombrero beneath bis arm with Ihe air and punctilio 
of a soldier presenting arms, his mental thermom- 
eter evidently ;it fighting point, said, 

■■ Rlighl Mister King be here?" 

Judge Gordon ever ready to gratify bis disposition 
for u quiet joke, and discovering rich croppings 
therefor, concluded to prospect, and answered, 

"No. What do you want with Mr. King? " 

Pat — " An' its meself that wants me money! " 

Judge Gordon — " What money has Mr. King of 
yours?" 

Pat — " Its me money that 1 arent like an honest 
man off them that died in the river beyant, bedad! " 

Judge Gordon — " Did you earn it before or after 
they were drowned ? " 

Pat — " Do ye think they could hire me afther they 
were dead, bedad? " 

Judge Gordon — " Mr. King cannot give you your 
money now. You must wait until the estate is 
administered." 

Pat— "An' what's that?" 

Judge Gordon — " Until it goes through the court." 

Pat — "An' d'ye say that, now? Then it's Pat 
Booney's son '11 give hisself no more trouble aboot 
it, at all, at all. Bedad, an' if it goes through the 
coort, it's meself that '11 niver see a cint. Ach, hone, 
I thought afther only one' man's stalings, faith, 
there'd be some left — but if it's got to go through the 
coort, Holy Virgin, it's me own father's son that '11 
niver get a cint. Good day ter yees, gintlemen; it's 
no more I'll bother me head aboot it, at all, at all! " 

DEVOUT DEACONS. 

About the year 1860, an Episcopal clergyman 
made an effort to establish a society of his form of 
worship at Jackson, and secured the court-room for 
the meeting. Of course it was popular, and it 
became the intellectual members of the community 
to identify themselves with the movement; hence, 
many members of the Bur who had been conspic- 
uous by their absence from any church for years, 
were in attendance. It was necessary that deacons 

should be selected, and Counselor B and Judge 

H were among the elect. During service they 

were unable to find the places in the book for re- 
sponses, and B — asked of H in an audible whisper, 

"Jim, where in h — 1 is the place?" " Damfino," 

responded H earnestly turning the leaves of the 

one book with which he was not familiar. 

A COLORED ADVOCATE. 

J. W. D. Palmer, a most genial and intelligent 
gentleman, from Kentucky, and formerly connected 
with the press at Louisville, has been Justice of the 
Peace at Lancha Plana for years. In his court an 
action to recover the possession of a mining claim, 
situated in the basin of a hill, was brought by Hon. 
George Wagner, who had represented Amador in 
the Assembly, against a colored man named Smith, 
who had dug a "tail-race" through the rim rock 



of the hill into the basin, through which to run off 
the debris in sluices. Mi-. Wagner was represented 

l'\ Mr. Severance, and Smith appeared in propria 
persona. The testimony all in, Smith proceeded to 
sum up as follows: ■ Yer 'oner, 1 will please to state 
to dis Court dat 1 jist spent my bottom dollar on 
dat ar tail-race; an de statoots uv dis State says dat 
you can't steal away my prop'ty. My oppoleon has 
gone and payed a silver-tongued lawyer to come 
here and cheat me out ob dat tail-race, but I'll 
please to state to dis Court dat it can't be did. No 
sar! Now dars George Wagner, kase he's 'lected to 
de Legislater when people was scace down dis way, 
he thinks he can run ober de poor African!" In 
spite of his eloquence he lost his ease. 

A GAME OP WHIST. 

One evening during court week, Tod Eobinson 
and Judge Carter engaged in a game of whist, in 
the "Young America," upon opposite sides. After 
playing for some lime, Judge Carter dextrously 
exchanged cards with Judge Eobinson, and got a 
very good hand by that means. The act was wit- 
nessed by the spectators, but passed unnoticed by 
Judge Eobinson. Trick after trick was taken by 
Carter, to the audible amusement of the lookers-on, 
when Eobinson, irritated by the laughter exclaimed, 
in that clear, cut silver speech, for which he was 
noted, "Gentlemen, am / the butt of your merri- 
ment?" lie soon discovered that Carter had played 
a trick on him, and, rising to his full height and. 
assuming his most dignified and tragic style, said, 
"Judge Carter! [pause] Squire Carter! [pause — 
in a louder tone] Mister Carter! [contemptuously] 
Carter! [then in a tone of withering iron}] Old 
Carter! You have played seven-up with Bill Hicks 
and Jim Martin on a rawhide until j'ou are wholly 
unfit to play with a gentleman, and I'll leave you, 
sir!" 

AN INDUSTRIOUS GRAND JURY. 

A careful reader of our history will not need tell- 
ing a second time, that gambling was alarmingly 
prevalent in early days. The Legislature passed 
laws making gambling a penal offense; but in the 
chaotic state of society, about the beginning of the 
sixties, the laws against it were considered more 
as moral maxims than as imperious rules, and 
gambling went on much as ever. It happened that 
a Grand Jury, more than usually conscientious was 
convened, and when they were sworn to bring to 
notice all known violations of the statutes, gambling 
was of course included. A iew cases were brought 
in, and the persons indicted. This led to more, and 
the whole week was spent in obtaining evidence of 
the act, until the numbers amounted to over three 
hundred. The District Attorney urged the useless- 
ness of the course, as no trial jury would convict a 
man of a State's prison offense merely for betting 
a quarter on monte or faro, but the Grand Jury 
thought otherwise. Blank indictments were printed 



I 



SKETCHES OF AMADOR COUNTY BAR. 



295 



so that the jurors themselves could fill up the blanks, 
and the work went on. One ease was brought to 
trial, and a day spent in the vain effort to obtain a 
conviction. The District Attorney here told the 
jury that he was unable to obtain a conviction, and 
asked legal assistance. Fifty dollars was raised 
among the grand jurors, and the services of Tod 
Robinson obtained. He exerted himself to the 
utmost, still the verdict was 1: not guilty."- Sat- 
urday noon had arrived, and the Grand Jury were 
still at work, increasing the list until it seemed as 
if half the county would be put on trial. The Dis- 
trict Attorney communicated his dilemma to Judge 
Gordon, He said nothing, but gave that peculiar 



twist of the eyes and mouth which all his friends 

know forebodes well, something decisive. When 

some little business had been disposed of the Judge 
asked the usual question, "Mr. District Attorney, 
have you any farther business before this Court?" 
Upon being answered in the negative, he ordered 
the Court adjourned sine die. The Grand Jury met 
the following Monday morning to continue the busi- 
ness, but were informed that the adjournment of 
the Court had ended their life as a Grand Jury. 
Some were able to look at it as a good joke; others 
went home resolving that if they should again get 
on the Grand Jury, they would begin with the Judge 
first. 



296 



OFFICERS OF A.MADOR COUNTY. 



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BIOGRAPHICAL Affl DESCRIPTIVE SKETCHES 



GEOEGE ALLEN 

Is a native of the city of New York; born on the 
11th of July, 1841. Being left an orphan at the 
early age of one year, he was taken to Rochester, 
where he lived about ten years. His education was 
obtained in different portions of the great " Empire " 
State, his occupation, after he was old enough to 
work, being farming. In 1860 he came to Califor- 
nia, by way of the Isthmus of Panama, landing in 
the city of San Francisco on the first day of March. 
The second day of the same month found him at 
Sutter Creek, Amador county, which he has since 
made his home. He has been engaged in various 
kinds of business since arriving at this place, "pi'inci- 
pally teaming, lumbering, and stock-raising. 

For the first six years he followed the former bus- 
iness, and then engaged in the lumber trade, which 
business he still conducts, having the only lumber- 
yard in Sutter Creek. A good portion of the time 
he has several teams on the road, hauling lumber 
from his saw-mill, better known as Tarr's mill, situ- 
ated about ten miles above Volcano. 

He is largely interested in stock-raising, dealing 
in and raising horses, mules, and cattle, extensively. 
Mr. Allen has in the neighborhood of three thousand 
acres of land adjoining Sutter Creek, all under 
fence, and well supplied with the necessary arrange- 
ments for the prosecution of his business; has 
numerous barns for the shelter of his stock. He also 
has some fifteen hundred acres of mountain range, 
to which he drives his stock when the feed fails 
around his home ranch. Taking into consideration 
his being left an orphan when so young, Mr. Allen 
is a self-made man, and has accomplished what many 
others have failed to do. His honesty, integrity and 
punctuality have always been prominent features in 
his dealings with his fellow-men. 

He was married July 11, 1870, in Amador City, to 
Miss Annie E. Bradbury, a native of the State 
of Maine. Their union has been blessed with five 
children, four of whom, two boys and two girls, are 
still living, their oldest child, a daughter, having 
died. 



JEFFERSON BAIRD 



cipally engaged in farming. In 1850 he was swept 
off by the great California wave, which sent such a 
vast number of the best and most energetic across 
the plains to build up a new State. After resting 
and looking around awhile at Sacramento, he went 
to Rough and Ready, in Nevada county, where he 
remained one year, engaged in mining. From thence 
he moved to El Dorado county, making that his 
home until 1876, being engaged in mining ditches 
until 1856, when he bought into a saw-mill, which, in 
connection with the selling and transportation of 
lumber, he carried on until the year mentioned, when 
he finally located on the present farm, which he had 
previously purchased. It is situated three miles 
north-east of Plymouth, and contains three hundred 
and twenty acres of ground highly improved. 

Mr. Baird was married September 14, 1868, to 
Miss Mary Ann Brown, who died May 1, 1877. 
The family consists of Mr. Baird and an only son, 
now twelve yeai's of age. He is a man trusted 
by his neighbors, and is a member of the Board of 
School Trustees of his district. 



Was born in Perry county, Pennsylvania, December 
15, 1826, where he resided until the Spring of 1839, 
when, with his parents, he removed to Iowa. While 
there he learned the carpenter's trade, though prin- 



CHARLES BAMERT 
Was born at Baden, in Germany, April 2, 1830. The 
first five years of his life were passed in his native 
country; but coming to America at that early age, 
his first recollections are consequently located in this 
country. Upon his arrival in America, he*vent with 
his parents to Ontario, New York, where he remained 
until 1852. During that time he attended school 
and acquired a common school education. 

In the year last named, he came to California, 
reaching San Francisco in the month of July. His 
first occupation was that of a miner, in Ophir dis- 
trict, in Placer county, where he experienced the 
trials and privations usually connected with that 
kind of life in those days. For eight years he fol- 
lowed that business, and in 1860 settled on the 
Mokelumne river, where he has since resided. Mr. 
Bamert has a fine ranch containing seven hundred 
acres, and is also largely interested in other tracts of 
land in connection with other parties. He has been 
extensively engaged in stock-raising, but more 
recently has turned his attention to the sheep bus- 
iness, in company with Pardeau & Borden. For 
thirteen years Mr. Bamei't has been engaged in gen- 
eral merchandise, being first interested with Messrs. 
Woolsey & Palmer, afterward purchasing their inter- 



800 



BISTORT <»F AMADOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 






i-i- in the -to'-k of goods, and conducting tin- busi 
himself. Bis natural ability for the trade has 
manifested ilsell throughout his years of experience 
and he ranks a1 the presenl time with the prosper 
ou.s and successful business men of the county. Ho 
was married in L876, to Miss Leah Shclburn, and 
their union bos been blessed with two children, now 
aged three and one years respectively. 



VAHi All BISHOP. 



The Bubject of the following sketch is a native of 
New York State, having been born at Warrensburgh, 

Warren county, in L839. Dpon reaching his major- 
ity he left the familiar scenes of his childhood, and 
began the battle of life for himself, his objective 
point being California. His first location in this State 
was at lone, Amador county, where he was engaged 
in trade from 18G1 to 1866. In June of the last 
Darned year, he removed to the city of San Fran- 
cisco, and for about fourteen years was widely known 
as a successful grocer of that thriving city. In the 
Spring of 18S0, Mr. Bishop returned to lone and pur- 
chased the stock and trade of Daniel Stewart, and is 
in possession of a large, thriving business. 

He was married in San Francisco in October, 1873, 
to Mrs. Sophia C. Streeter, and their union is blessed 
with two children, both gii'ls. 



J. C. BLYTHER 

Is a native of the State of Maine; was born in the 
town of Calais, Washington county, January 7, 1826. 
At the tender age of three years he removed with 
his parents to the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. 
In the " Crescent City " he received a liberal educa- 
tion, and resided there most of the time until 1850, 
at which time he came to California. Like nearly 
all the early pioneers of the " Golden State," his 
aspirations led him to seek his fortune in the mines, 
and his first occupation after reaching his destination 
was consequently that of delving in the earth in 
search of the precious nuggets. After a short time 
in his first location, he sought other places where it 
was believed dame fortune had deposited a larger 
supply of wealth for him; and, possessing a rambling- 
nature, visited different parts of the State during the 
succeeding eleven years. In 1861 Mr. Blyther con- 
cluded to settle down, as he was a firm believer in the 
old adage that "a rolling stone gathers no moss," and 
in the last-named year located on the ranch, where 
he is very pleasantly situated at the present time, 
owning one of the best places on the Mokelumne 
river; though containing but two hundred acres, it 
is well cared for, and conducted on the true principle 
that land in order to be remunerative, must receive 
a certain amount of attention. He was married in 
1S66 to Mrs. Child, who had one child by a former 
marriage, that now lives with his parents, a bright, 



active 3'Oung man of nineteen years. Mr. Blyther is a 
courtoous gentleman, and in connection with his rep- 
utation as a good farmer, has the good-will and esteem 
of his neighbors, and is what might be called a self- 
made man. 



JOHN A. BROWN 
Was born in the town of Warsaw, State of Missouri, 
on the 25th of November, 1848. When he was a 
mere infant his parents came across the plains to 
California with ox-teams. The first recollections of 
which our subject is master, arc of life in the golden 
State. His education was obtained in the schools 
of this State, and speaks volumes for the country 
that but a few years since, was known only to the 
hardy pioneers and the "dusky sons of the forest." 
The first location of the family after reaching the 
land of promise, was on Bear river, near Marysville. 
One year later they removed to Amador City, and 
soon after moved on to a farm near Sutter creek, 
where they remained fourteen years. 

The subject of our sketch attended school until 
about twentjr years of age, and at the early age of 
twenty-two years was elected as a Justice of the 
Peace, holding the office nearly two years. He was 
engaged in various kinds of business after leaving 
school, and put in some time prospecting; he also 
studied law for a couple of years, but during this 
time he had an ambition to become a civil engineer 
and surveyor, and accordingly fitted himself for that 
profession. 

In 1878 be received the appointment of County 
Surveyor, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of 
that officer, and the same Summer received his papers 
appointing him a United States Deputy Surveyor. 
Since receiving his first appointment as County Sur- 
veyor, he has continued to fill that position to the 
present time, and has dispatched the duties of his 
office with entire satisfaction to his people and with 
credit to himself. In 1879 he made a survey of all 
the public roads of this county, and is at present 
engaged in making an elaborate county map. Mr. 
Brown is an accomplished and thorough gentleman 
in all the associations of life, and also fully appre- 
ciates the fact that his profession requires the atten- 
tion, that he so readily gives to it. 

He was married February 25, 1880, to Miss Vir- 
ginia Hayden, one child having been born to them. 



ANTHONY CAMINBTTI 
Was born at Jackson Gate, in Amador county, July 
30, 1854, being one of the first children born in the 
county. His parents are natives of Italy. The first 
ten years of his life were passed in his native place, 
and at that age he went to the city of San Francisco, 
and attended school, for three years. In 1867, he 
returned to Jackson, and entered the employ of his 
Uncle, B. Caminetti, as clerk in his store. In this 



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BIOGKAPHICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE SKETCHES. 



301 



last position he remained about three years, and 
again went to San Francisco, and entered the law 
office of Quint & Hardy, as clerk, and remained 
in that capacity until the completion of the first trial 
of Laura D. Fair. He soon after entered the State 
University, at Oakland, where he pursued his studies 
until October 31, 1873, at which time he returned 
to Jackson, and commenced reading law in the 
office of J. T. Farley. In May, 1877, he was admit- 
ted to the Bar of California, and, during the same 
year, was elected as District Attorney. During the 
Legislative session of 1875-76, Mr. Caminetti filled 
the position of Assistant Journal Clerk of the Senate. 
He was at once recognized as a leader in politics, 
and in 1880 received the nomination as alternate 
elector on the Democratic Presidential ticket. In 
social life he is a genial -gentleman, enjoying a large 
circle of friends, and though young in years, carries 
a well-balanced head; and we may expect to see 
him honored in a. manner becoming his talents. 



W. \V. CAELILE 



Was born in Carroll county, Ohio, December 3, 
1839. He resided in that State until 1846, when he 
removed with his parents to Keokuk, Iowa, where he 
lived until 1862. When but little past his majority 
he discovered that it was not good for man to live 
alone, and took himself a wife, Miss Phebe Smith, 
who has blessed him with six children, four girls and 
two boys; all but one girl now living, who bid fair 
to inherit the virtues and industrious habits of both 
parents. May 7, 1862, himself and wife, packing 
their worldly estate into a wagon, started for Califor- 
nia with an ox-team, full of hope and determination 
that if hard work would wrench good fortune out of 
the California chaos, they would have a share of the 
gold and other good things. The daily plodding 
through the sands and climbing of mountains ter- 
minated, and one evening they let their eyes feast on 
the green valleys of lone, which formed such a con- 
trast to the alkaline plains of the two thousand 
miles they had so wearily traversed. They rented a 
farm and orchard in the interior of the valley, and 
sunrise and sunset saw him either at work on his 
place or on the way to market. In those days all 
kinds of farm produce brought a good price, and in 
a few years he had accumulated several thousand 
dollars, enough, as he thought, to give him a good 
start in the West, for like most early comers to Cali- 
fornia he had not learned to consider California an 
inviting home. In 1872 he pulled up all his stakes 
and removed to Kansas, with the intention of making 
that State his home. But, alas! he had not calcu- 
lated for the cold winters. He did not like the idea 
of having his heels freeze while his toes were toast- 
ing at a fierce fire; one winter of it was enough. 
The following Spring he was on his way to Cali- 
fornia, and reached it in due time a wiser, if not a 



wealthier, man, for this bit of experience had made 
quite a hole in his little capital. But the word fail 
had no place in his vocabulary. He was not long in 
getting under way, and soon bought the place on 
which he now resides, it being in the neighborhood 
of the noted Q ranch, containing some of the best 
land in the famous lone valley. In addition to 
farming his own place he has been engaged in 
threshing for the many farmers in his vicinity. His 
love for machinery and knowledge of mechanics has 
enabled him to make many improvements in the 
steam power and separators, one of which is likely 
to become extensively adopted. This is an attach- 
ment to the engine to raise the grain to the separator 
without the aid of horses. As the machine is under 
the control of the engineer, it makes a saving of 
both horse and man power. It is needless to say 
that Mr. Carlile has secured a patent for the improve- 
ment, it being the first in this direction. Our readers 
will better understand the nature of the improve- 
ment by consulting the engraving in the body of the 
work. Coal in considerable quantity is found on his 
ranch, and the same stream of gravel that has made 
good diggings on the Coffin place, also traverses his. 



JAMES CUMMING. 



Few men have a more varied or extensive expe- 
rience than Dr. Cumming. A volume of interesting 
incidents might be written without exhausting the 
subject. He is a native of Tennessee, first seeing 
the sunlight February 10, 1813, among the mount- 
ains of the eastern part of the State, which has pro- 
duced so many extraordinary men, such as Andrew 
Johnson and Parson Brownlow, Grainger county 
being his birthplace. He received a liberal educa- 
tion, both classical and scientific, being a graduate 
of the University of Knoxville. He afterwards 
studied medicine, graduating in the Transylvania 
University of Kentucky. He spent some years in 
the practice of medicine in Decatur, Alabama, but, 
in consequence of ill-health, was forced to leave that 
section of country, removing in 1836 to Peoria, Illi- 
nois, where, in addition to the practice of medicine, 
he engaged extensively in real estate transactions. 
He rapidly accumulated property, soon becoming 
rich. January 17, 1842, he married Miss Mary Ann 
Dorsey, daughter of Captain Chas. S. Dorsey, of 
Kentucky. It was remarked that the richest man 
had married the handsomest woman in four counties, 
this seeming anomaly arising from the fact that the 
Dorsey residence stood on the corners of four coun- 
ties. Miss Dorsey made him an inestimable com- 
panion, and still retains much of the beaut} 7 which 
forty years ago made her the queen of all the prairie 
flowers. They have had three children, none of 
whom are living to inherit the beauty of the mother, 
or the intellectual qualifications of the father. 

His extensive business operations carried him to 



302 



HISTORY OF AMADOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



different parts "i the I Dion, bis longest Btay being 
made in Now Mexico, oear Santa Pe, where be 
ongaged in trade, and also in government contracts. 
His knowledge of the Spanish language, and the 
oharaoter of the peons, enabled him to render the 
Government efficient Bervice. His experiences among 
the ignorant and prejudiced, but not by any means 
bad, natives would make interesting and valuable 
reading matter, if the doctor could be induced to 
commit it to paper. In 1850, he so far closed his 
business in New .Mexico as to permit his leaving the 
Territory and becoming a citizen of California. lie 
was among the first to take passage by the lino of 
overland stages established about that time. Soon 
after arriving in this State he purchased the prop- 
erty known as the brick flour mills, which he 
enlarged and otherwise improved, until he can do 



as good work as is done in the State. The mill has 
both water and steam-power, the water-power being 
obtained by a ditcb which taps Sutter creek about 
two miles above the town, the steam-power being 
used when the water is low. Dr. Gumming is a 
noted inventor, lie having constructed the first plow 
that would scour in the 1'at prairies of the West, 
lie has patented two important improvements in 
the turbine wheel, one of which was to contract the 
openings so as to utilize the whole fall with a small 
head of water, lie has also some thirty other pat- 
ents, which have been generally adopted. He has 
occupied many positions of. honor, such as army 
surgeon, member of the Illinois Legislature, magis- 
trate, etc. Fort Gumming was named in his honor. 
He has not accepted any official position in Cali- 
fornia. 




WILLIAM O 

WILLIAM O. CLARK. 
A personal acquaintance with the subject of this 
sketch enables the writer to give more of the history 
of this natural orator than he would be likely to 
communicate to any one for publication. He was 
born in Madison, Indiana, January 21, 1817, and con- 
sequently has seen most of the strides that Indiana, 
as well as other western States, has made in popula- 
tion and wealth. He came to California in an early 
day, and found ample material in the abundant dram- 
drinking of California to arouse into action all his 
powers of oratory, and he early sounded the tocsin 
of alarm, and proclaimed the evils of intemperance 



CLARK. 



in every town, from Siskiyou to San Diego, organiz- 
ing temperance societies in every possible place. 
He is possessed of a sanguine temperament that 
throws all power available into a contest when once 
a decision is made, and he made his influence felt 
wherever saloons existed. He is said to have spent 
several fortunes in the cause. He has been G. W. P. 
of the Sons of Temperance for many successive 
terms. In 1872 he made a trip around the world, 
visiting England, France, Sicily, Egypt, the Holy 
Land, India, China and Japan, carrying the temper- 
ance colors all the time, and lecturing upon it 
whenever practicable. He has resided in Drytown, 



BIOGRAPHICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE SKETCHES. 



303 



except when traveling on his special mission, for 
twenty-six years. He suffered heavily in the great 
fire of 1857, but saved something from the general 
wreck. The brick store he claims to be the oldest 
brick structure in the county. Other brick buildings 
were erected before his, but "went down in some of 
the numerous fires which visited every town. He 
was married in 1857, to Miss Julia Appleby of Ottawa, 
Illinois. She was noted as combining extraordinary 
beauty with a vigorous intellect, and in a suitable 
sphere would have taken high rank. There was 
little room in Drytown a quarter of a century since, 
however, for the exercise of those gifts which in the 
centers of population would have made her a queen 
of society. They have one child, a son, living. Mr. 
Clark amuses himself in his intervals of business, by 
cultivating the hills around Drytown in grain, and 
demonstrating their ability to produce something 
besides grapes. 



THOMPSON DAVIS 



"Was born in the State of Missouri in 1833. At the 
age of twenty years he emigrated to California, set- 
tling atPlacerville (Hangtown), in El Dorado county, 
where he lived for two years, when he came to Vol- 
cano, where he mined for one year; thence to Oleta 
where he lived for two years; thence to Upper 
Rancheria, where he also mined for two years. 
Placer mining becoming rather precarious, he tried 
farming in Buckeye valley, near Carbondale, for ten 
years. He then engaged in the mercantile business 
near Drytown for eight years. In 1879 he removed 
to Plymouth, where he erected a store and enlarged 
his business. He has since made this place his home. 
He was married in 1866 to Miss Maria A. Davies. 
They have four children. 



R. C. DOWNS 



AVas born in Bristol, Hartford county, Connecticut, 
on the 19th of April, 1828, where he passed his early 
years. At the age of eighteen he went to New 
York City, where he was employed as a clerk in a 
dry goods establishment. On the 25th of January, 
1849, he sailed from the latter city in the ship 
Tuhmaroo, Captain Richardson, master; and on the 
first of the following July, landed in San Francisco. 
He at once left for the mines, his first location being 
on the north fork of the American river, where he 
remained until the Fall of that year. He then 
removed to Amador creek, and was engaged in the 
same business until the following Spring. From 
1850 until 1859 he was engaged in merchandising at 
Amador, Rancheria, Sutter Creek and Volcano, in 
company with Levi Hanford, having establishments 
at each of those places. Mr. Hanford had charge 
of the stores, Mr. Downs generally remaining in the 
city purchasing and forwarding goods. They were 



eminently successful, the firm of Hanford & Downs 
becoming well known over the State. From 1860 to 
1873 he was part owner and superintendent of the 
Lincoln quartz mine at Sutter Creek, Leland Stan- 
ford being a partner. He made the mine a paying 
institution. The succeeding four years he spent in 
traveling, making several trips to the Eastern States, 
as well as traveling extensively through California. 
In the Summer of 1877, in connection with J. M. 
Hanford, he opened a mine near Volcano, now bear- 
ing his name, which they have worked successfully 
ever since. Mr. Downs is also owner of the Colden 
Eagle mine, near Sutter Creek, which he is now 
prospecting. He was elected to the Assembly of the 
State Legislature in 1879-80, an office he filled to the 
entire satisfaction of his constituents. He has 
recently built a fine residence at Sutter Creek, where 
he intends making his permanent home. He was 
married in his native town, in October, 1856, and 
has three sons aged respectively eighteen, sixteen 
and thirteen years. 



THOMAS W. EASTON 



Is a native of England, though he came to America 
in company with his parents when he was but eight 
years of age. He was born September 1, 1823, in 
the county of Kent. The family settled in Otsego 
countj 7 , New York. Soon after reaching America, the 
boy, feeling strong enough to go alone, started out in 
life on his own account, going first to Cattaraugus 
county, where he engaged in farming for some years, 
or until he was twenty-one years old, when he went 
to Saginaw county, Michigan, where he followed 
teaching private school for two seasons. Following 
up the injunction to go west, he made another move, 
this time to Wisconsin, in which State he resided 
four years, engaged, most of the time, in farming. 
In 1848, being then twenty-five years of age, he 
mai'ried Miss Lucinda Jane Van Loan, who was a 
native of New York. In 1854 Mr. Easton, with his 
wife and two children — a daughter and son — crossed 
the plains to California, making their first halt in 
Sacramento county, going afterwards to Placerville 
for a few months, finally settling in El Dorado 
county, where he lived until October, 1873, his prin- 
cipal business being mining, though he united with 
this the business of keeping a hotel during seven 
years of the time. In 1873 he came to Plymouth, 
then rapidly growing up in consequence of the 
development of the mines under the management of 
Alvinza Hay ward, and engaged in keeping a hotel. 
In June, 1877, he was completely ruined in financial 
matters by the great fire of that year; but the energy 
which had wrested success out of apparent defeat so 
many times was not exhausted, and another one was 
soon flourishing. His family consists of himself, wife 
and four children. 



ETSTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



s. W. EMMONS 
Was born January 3] 1829, at Cliillicothc. Ross 
oounty, ()lii<>. When bal three years of age he 
removed with hie parents to the State of Michigan, 
where he lived on a farm until he reached the age of 
eighteen years. Saving acquired a common school 
education from the meagre facilities of his neighbor- 
hood by attending school during the Winter terms, 
be left home and went to Detroit, and entered a 
machine shop for the purpose of learning the trade 
of a machinist, spending the next five years in so 
doing. 

In 1S53 ho saw bright and golden prospects in 
California, and, to realize his hopes in that direction, 
sailed for tho Pacific coast, which he reached in due 
time, by way of the Isthmus. He at once entered 
the mines in El Dorado county, but soon after went 
to Mokelumne Hill, in Calaveras county, where he 
followed mining until 1856, with varied success. In 
1857 ho accepted a position as engineer in Clinton, 
Amador county, where he remained one year. His 
next move was to accept a position at the New York 
branch saw-mill, and had charge of the engine from 
185S to 1864 In the last-named year, he took the 
management of the engine and machinery at the 
Oneida mine, wh ; ch he retained two years. He was 
afterwards in a like position in Jackson, in the Ken- 
nedy mine. In all these responsible positions Mr. 
Emmons succeeded admirably in giving entire satis- 
faction to his employers, and became noted for his 
excellent management. Tiring of this occupation, 
and requiring out-door exercise, he engaged in farm- 
ing at the New York ranch, which he followed about 
two years. He then bought the Pine Grove hotel, 
a place well and favorably known throughout the 
country, located on the Jackson and Yolcano road, 
ten miles north-east of the former place, and has 
since catered to the wants of his guests in a creditable 
manner. 

Mr. Emmons was married on New Year's day, 
1S73, to Miss Eliza Beem, a native of Illinois, and 
their union is blessed with one child, a son, about five 
years of age. 

The hotel and surroundings of Mr. Emmons can 
best be appreciated by a glance at the view herein 
contained on another page. 



PETER FAGAN 

Is a native of Canada West, having been born at a 
place called Bytown, now known as Ottawa, in 
the year 1835. The first sixteen years of his life 
were passed on Canadian soil, and his early educa- 
tion was obtained in the schools of his native town. 
In 1851 he emigrated with his parents to the State 
of Illinois, and located in Bureau county, and for 
about eight years devoted bis time to the tilling of 
the soil, which experience Avas of service to him in 
later years. In 1858 he came to California, by way 



of New Orleans and Havana. Ho remained a short 
time in San Francisco, and then came to Amador 
county, locating at Sutter Creek, where he has since 
resided, engaged in various occupations. The first 
four years of his residence at this place, he was 
engineer at thelkireka mine, a position he filled with 
more than ordinary ability. lie then turned his 
attention to teaming, and for two years followed that 
business. 

Desiring something better suited to his tastes, he 
gave up teaming and opened a livery stable, and has 
the satisfaction of knowing that his is the only first- 
class establishment of the kind in the town, in fact, 
no better can be found in many large cities. He is 
also considerably interested in ranching, owning a 
fine farm, containing two hundred acres. He has a 
mill in which he grinds the feed for his livery stock, 
and also for the public. The mill was originally run 
by steam, but is now run by water-power. 

Mr. Fagan is one of the live men, noted for energy 
and executive ability, and deserves, and does possess, 
the confidence of the community. He held the 
responsible position of Sheriff, in the years 1874-75, 
and performed the duties of the office to the satisfac- 
tion of all. 

He was married in 1864, to Miss Maggie Duke, 
a native of New York. They have seven children 
living, six girls and one boy. 



H. C. FARNHAM 



Is a native of New York, having been born July 12, 
1827, at Forestville, in Chester county. Here be 
acquired some education, and, what is of much more 
importance, the habits of industry and economy, 
which in every well regulated community are essen- 
tial to success. At the age of eighteen, on foot and 
alone, with his whole estate in bis bands, he started 
out on his life career. He was a splendid penman 
and felt confident of paying his way by teaching 
penmanship along the lines of travel, which he did, 
forming classes at many jooints, teaching the young 
ideas how to write. He brought up at Milwau- 
kee after six months of this, his first experience, in 
the world. Seeing no opening for work with his 
pen, he turned to the plane and saw, and worked at 
the carpenter business until 1850, when be enlisted 
in the great column bound for California, and one 
hot, sunny day found himself wandering around the 
streets and mining holes of Hangtown, wondering 
what next ? He mined around Placerville for a couple 
of years, and then, early in 1853, went to Fiddle- 
town, now Oleta, and in company with James Mc- 
Leod erected the first saw-mill in the vicinity. 
Through some faulty construction or setting, the 
boiler collapsed a flue and was thrown many feet out 
of its bed, fatally wounding two men (McLeod being 
one), and severely injuring Mr. Farnham, the flying 
boiler, with McLeod on the end, passing between Mr. 




HF 




STEPHEN FINN. 

( DECEASED) 



rawssj/ilvfsr res uahlmu cal 



BIOGRAPHICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE SKETCHES. 



301 



Farnham and another man sitting at a table in the 
office. Notwithstanding the accident the mill -was 
repaired, and has done good work ever since, though 
the cutting away of the timber has necessitated 
several removals of the mill farther into the mount- 
ains. 

He has a fine ranch of two hundred and eighty 
acres, of the deep, productive granite soil, in the 
immediate vicinity of Oleta, with large barns and 
elegant house. Several large teams hauling lumber 
to the mills of Plymouth and Amador, make the 
place look like business. In fact, Mr. Farnham is a 
business man; every line in his face, every move of 
his feet and look of his eyes, together with the sys- 
tem of order displayed on his farm, in his barns and 
shops, and mill, indicate the ruling motive of the 
man. He has an unmitigated contempt for the 
whining, indolent men, who stand around with their 
hands in their pockets, saying " the country is played 
out, nothing more to do." He has full faith in Cali- 
fornia, and believes it the best State in the Union. 

He was married April 1, 1854, to Miss Eunice 
Haynes, a native of New York, by whom he has had 
seven children, two daughters and five boys, now 
living. 



STEPHEN FINN. 



Few places in Amador county are better known 
than Finn's ranch. Like the Q ranch, Buena Vista, 
Buckeye, and other well-known places, it was not a 
town, but like them early became noted as among 
the first to establish the comforts of home and its 
refining influences, and reveal the possibilities of the 
new State. It was hardly possible to come into the 
county without hearing of Finn's ranch, or to con- 
verse about any matter without mentioning it. 
Every place was located as so many miles from 
Finn's ranch. Stephen Finn was born in County 
Wieklow, Ireland, December 26, 1829. Some nine 
years afterward his parents, following the great 
stream of emigration, went to Canada with their 
family of four children, Stephen being the youngest. 
They settled in the county of Kent, and commenced 
anew the struggle for a home. A rigorous climate, 
lands to be cleared of trees, and buildings to be 
erected, made this a laborious task, but young Finn 
did not flinch from the trial, but stayed by his parents 
until the coming of age, acquiring the habits of in- 
dustry and self-reliance which proved so valuable in 
the State of his adoption. 

On the sixteenth day of February, 1852, he mar- 
ried Miss Catherine Martin, a native of Canada, of 
French descent, who was born August 2, 1830. From 
this marriage came nine children, of whom six sur- 
vive. In 1853 Mr. Finn, with his young wife, came 
to California, settling first in El Dorado, then known 
as Mud Springs. Their stay there was short, how- 
ever, soon moving to this county, which he made a 
home for more than a quarter of a century, or until 
39 



his death, which occurred on February 28, 1880. 

He was a Roman Catholic in his religious opinions, 
but his charity and hospitality was not limited by 
church lines, all being welcomed to the comforts of 
his home, until the white house under the tree be- 
came famous for its good cheer. Easter, Christmas, 
New Years, and Thanksgiving, as well as birthdays, 
all found a large company of neighbors and friends 
at his table. 

He was a good citizen, industrious in his business, 
true to his promises, and faithful in every position 
in life. 



L. J. FONTENROSE. 

This gentleman was born September 27, 1850, of 
Italian parents, coming with them to California 
seven years later. He received his education in the 
public school of Sutter Creek, carrying off a large 
share of the honors, being, in every sense of the word, 
but birth, a native Californian. His education has 
been supplemented by a liberal course of reading, 
encouraged by his father, who early perceived the 
advantages of education to a citizen of the Republic. 
At the age of fifteen he entered a mercantile house, 
which position he retained until he was twenty-one, 
when he abandoned that business and engaged in 
quartz mining, running an engine most of the time. 
At the death of his father, five years later, he 
returned to bis home and took charge of the busi- 
ness until 1879, when he was appointed Deputy 
County Clerk, a position he was especially qualified 
to fill. At the county election held in 1880, he was 
chosen to the same position which he still retains. 
He is a trusty, patient, pains-taking man, and wins 
the confidence of all with whom he has business. 



MARGARET FOSTER. 



The lady referred to in the following sketch is a 
native of the State of Illinois, having been born in 
Madison county on the 15th of February, 1818. Her 
life was passed in her native State until the year 
1852, at which time she, in company with her hus- 
band, crossed the plains to California and settled in 
Amador county. She was married February 14, 
1842, to Claiborne Foster, who departed this life at 
the place where his widow still resides, September 6, 
1876. Being left alone in the world with the excep- 
tion of her two children, Mrs. Foster managed the 
business and ranch in a very creditable manner to 
herself. She has conducted a hotel for the weary 
traveler and teamster for some years, and it is a 
pleasure to become an inmate of her hospitable 
home. Her ranch is beautifully situated in the 
mountains six miles from Volcano, on the old emi- 
grant road, and contains three hundred acres of 
choice land. Her union with Mr. Foster was blessed 
with two children, both girls, who are married, and 
each have families of their own. 






IMSTOIIV OK AMADOR col'NTY, CALIFORNIA. 



JOHN ll GRAMBART 
Was born July 22, 1830, near Bremerbaven, in the 
Kingdom of Hanover. He came lo New York in 
( ►otober, 18 15, and to < lalifornia, via Panama, in 
arriving in Ban Francisco on the anniversary 
<>!' Washington's birthday. 11*' came to Drytown 

soon after, and engaged in the retail dry g la and 

grocery business with .1. C. Williams. He was 
married August 15, I860, to Miss E. D. Wells, 
daughter of Mr. II. Wells, of Amador Crossing. 

They bavi e child, a boy, thirteen years of age. 

Ho purchased the Central House in company with 
Lis lather in-law, Mr. II. Wells, February 4, 1863. 
This is one of the best known places in the county, 
occupying a central position on the lines of travel. 
It ran hardly be surpassed for natural scenery and 
beaut}- of location, having an extended view of Sac- 
ramento valley and the western part of the State. 



CHARLES GREEN 

Is a native of Ohio, having been born in Licking 
county, December 5, 1830, in which State he 
resided until 1850, when he emigrated, coming to 
California. His first halt was made in Sacramento, 
when, attracted by the rich bottom-lands and beau- 
tit ul crops, he went to farming, raising stock, hay 
and grain. He sold out in 1852, and moved to Yolo 
countj-, engaging in much the same business, where 
he again stayed about two years. Like almost 
every one, he had to try his luck in the mines, and 
mined two years at Salmon Falls, on the Ameiican 
river. In 1802 he went to Folsom and became 
interested in a large flouring mill, which he ran for 
three years. He then went out on the line of the 
Central Pacific railway, in the interest of T. II. 
Carroll & Co. He again turned to the mines, and in 
1S70 located in Amador count} T , looking for two and 
a half years after the property of the Sacramento 
and Amador Canal Company. In 1S72 he went into 
the emploj-ment of the Phoenix Mill and Mining- 
Company, then controlled by the Hoopers, as super- 
intendent of the ditch, and was finally made foreman 
of the mill, and eventually superintendent. His 
incumbency was marked by a great development of 
all the works about the mine, until it became the 
most extensive in the county. He was married, 
June 23, 1878, to Miss E. M. Russell, a native of 
Illinois, having been born September 19, 1848, in 
the town of Fillmore, Cole county. Mr. Green has 
a beautiful residence with pleasant surroundings, 
situated on a gentle eminence overlooking the town 
of Plymouth, a large portion of the western part 
of the county, and part of the Sacramento valley. 
His family at this time, 18S1, is himself, wife and 
one child. 



I. B. GREGORY 
Was born in Sumner county, Tennessee, April 5, 
1819, and for the succeeding thirteen years remained 



a residonl of thai Slate. His advantages for obtain- 
ing an education were somewhat limited, but he 
managed, by energy and close attention to his studies, 
to acquire a knowledge of the common branches, to 
which he added, in after years, a large amount of 
practical knowledge, which places him on a firm basis 
in that direction. In 1832 he removed from Ten- 
nessee to the State of Missouri, where he remained 
until 1846, at which time he went to Texas, and for 
about three years was a resident of that State. In 
1849 he again emigrated, this time to Iowa, and 
stayed there throe years, and then returned to Mis- 
souri. One year later he started for California by 
way of the plains, and after experiencing the usual 
incidents connected with such a trip, reached his 
objective point and located at lone City, Amador 
county, where he followed the occupation of con- 
tractor and builder. In 1862 Mr Gregory was 
elected a Supervisor of his district, serving in that 
position about three years. In 1867-68, he rep- 
resented his people in the Assembly of the State 
Legislature, in a very creditable manner to himself 
and to the entire satisfaction of his constituents, and 
was solicited to again accept the nomination for the 
same office, but declined. Mr. Gregory possesses the 
enviable distinction of being almost the only man ever 
elected to office in the county who did not urge his 
canvass with whisky. Some years since he joined a 
temperance societ}', the secretary of which firmly 
pasted the two sheets containing his signature and 
pledge, together, in consequence of which he cannot 
erase his name, and still feels bound by the obliga- 
tion. His honor and integrity are the brightest 
jewels in his character. About three years since he 
removed from lone City to his present home in Jack- 
son valley, a view of which is to be found in this 
volume. Mr. Gregory was married to Miss Martha 
Jane MeMurry, March 2, 1843; nine children are living 
at the present time to bless their union, one being 
laid to rest to meet them no more on earth. 



A. C. HAM 



Was born on the Licking river in Kentucky in 1841. 
Soon after the family removed to Illinois, where they 
resided until 1855, when they came to California, 
joining the father, J. C. Ham, the extensive con- 
tractor and builder, who had preceded them some 
years. Tbey made their residence at Aqueduct City, 
the headquarters of some of the largest enterprises 
of the senior member of the family. Young Ham 
soon "struck out" for himself, engaging in mining 
and other business. On the opening of the Amador 
wagon road our friend established a hotel, called 
Ham's Station, about twenty miles above Yolcano, 
which he managed for some years, but which since 
the building of the larger hotel at Aqueduct City, he 
has left to the management of an agent. Mr. Ham 
has now become sole owner of the Modoc mine, in 



BIOGRAPHICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE SKETCHES. 



307 



the Pioneer district. The mine bids fair to take its 
place among the bullion producers of the Pacific 
coast. Persons -wishing for a few days' rural amuse- 
ment in a romantic valley will do well to make Mr. 
Ham's place their headquarters, as he is familiar 
with all the resorts of the grizzlies and other game. 



FRANKLIN HERMAN. 

The subject of the following sketch is a native of 
Pennsylvania, having been born in Franklin county, 
February 27, 1830. When five years of age he 
removed with his parents to the wilds of Ohio, where 
he remained until he entered the army, and engaged 
in the war with Mexico. His education was received 
in the common schools, and leaving school and 
friends at such an early age, he was necessarily 
deprived of advantages in that line. He, however, 
obtained a thorough knowledge of the common 
branches, and with his one year's service in the army 
placed himself on a fair footing with many who 
received more advantageous schooling. 

At the expiration of his term of service he returned 
to Ohio, where he remained about two years. He 
was married when quite young to Miss Mary G. 
Dreisbach, a native of Ohio, and soon after started 
with his bride for the Pacific coast, and located at 
Shasta in 1853, where he remained about four 
months. He is by trade a blacksmith, a business he 
has followed during all his life on this coast. Upon 
leaving Shasta he settled at Sutter Creek, Amador 
county, where he has since resided. 

Mr. Herman is at the present time engaged by the 
Muhoney Mining Company, as a true son of Vulcan. 
He has very few superiors, and is withal a gentleman 
in whom repose the respect and confidence of all 
who know him. His family consists of himself, wife 
and two children, a son and daughter. 



R. S. AND J. M. HINKSON 
Are natives of Washington county, Missouri, where 
they resided until 1849, when they crossed the plains 
with the extensive family of that name, with their 
connections by marriage, the Boones. They located 
at Drytown, on the north side of the creek, in what 
was soon after El Dorado county, Dry creek beino- 
the dividing line. Few families have been better 
known than the Ilinksons. They were the fir.-t to 
open and develop the Potosi mine. The elderly 
Hinkson did more, perhaps, to restrain and calm the 
anger of the people during the terrible affair of 
August, 1855, than any other man, his age and rep- 
utation being appreciated by the honest, though hasty 
miners. The two sons whose names are at the head 
of this article, came to Volcano in L79, and engaged 
in the livery business, which they are still carrying 
on. They run a stage line to Jackson and also have 
a mail contract between Jackson and Volcano, and 



also carry the express for Wells, Fargo & Co., and 
do an express business on their own account. They 
both have families residing in Volcano. The Ilink- 
sons are reckoned among the solid, reliable men of 
the county. 



FRANK HOFFMAN 



Was born April 18, 1827, in Evarsdorf, in Germany, 
coming to America at the early age of sixteen, New 
Orleans being his first residence. After remaining 
here three months he went to St. Louis, in Missouri, 
where he remained seven years, engaged in the 
butchering business. In 1850 he fell into the big 
column of immigration and crossed the plains to Cal- 
ifornia, reaching Mud Springs (El Dorado) among 
the earliest. Here he followed the same business as 
in St. Louis until the following Spring, in company 
with John P. Hoffman, now living near Ukiah City. 
In the Spring he went to Grass Valley and started 
business there, continuing in it for about six months, 
when he sold out and went to the Missouri House, 
near Auburn, where he remained about six months. 
Mokelumne river was his next location, settling on a 
ranch and remaining about four years. While en- 
gaged in ranching with a partner, they started a 
livery stable at Mokelumne Hill, but not being satis- 
fied with it, they abandoned the project, but started 
in the following season the same business at Jackson, 
which venture proved profitable and permanent, for 
the business has been continued in the same place to 
the present day. 

He was married in 1862 to Miss Christina Clem. 
They have no children. 

He has a well-equipped stable, fine residence, and 
a highly cultivated farm of one hundred and sixty 
acres, adjoining the town of Jackson. He is one of 
the solid men of the county, who was willing to wrest 
wealth out of the chaos of early days, with hard 
work and close attention to business, and who did 
it too. 



JAMES H. HOLMAN 



Was born in the town of Versailles, Indiana, Febru- 
ary 18, 1831, residing there until he was twenty-one 
years of age, acquiring the education and business 
habits which has served him to such good purpose 
in California. The great wave of gold fever, which 
swept over the country in 1852, took him from the 
parent home, and March 1st we find him among the 
crowd, driving an ox-team and plodding his weary 
way across the plains towards the sunset. The long- 
est journey must have an end, and August 7th he 
looked down into the Ilangtown (Placerville) basin, 
famous for murder, hanging and gambling, as well as 
its rich placers. What a contrast then with now ; 
then Lucky Bill was coining money on the streets, a 
meal of bread, tough steak and black coffee was 
worth a dollar, and Coon Hollow was giving up its 



3 IS 



HISTORY OK AMADOU I'OI'XTY, (CALIFORNIA. 



millions to those who would dig. The oldest Yuba 
Dammar would soy thai il wasa"righ1 peerl place;" 
now ? He followed mining for two years and 
then went to teaming, a business which he has fol- 
lowed extensively to I he presenl time, latterly for the 
Empire Mining and Mill Company at Plymouth. In 
1856 li" looated at Fiddletown (Oleta) where he 
remained for Bve or >ix years. In 1870 he located on 
his presenl ranch one mile and a half west of the town 
Of Plymouth, and commenced making a permanent 
home. His farm contains 1G0 acres of highly im- 
proved land. In connection with farming and team- 
ing he has raised stock of all kinds, lie enjoys the 
confidence of the community and has held several 
responsible offices. He was married August 4, 1850, 
to Miss Catherine Ashby, a native of Illinois, by 
whom he had one child, not now living. Mr. Hol- 
man's surroundings are pleasant and comfortable, a 
good place to anchor to, after the hurry -skwrry of 
thirty years of excitement and labor. 



JOHN IIOSLEY. 



"I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest, of 
most excellent fancy." Who does not know John; 
" rough, but generous, brave and kind." He has 
played more jokes, said more pithy things, and spent 
and given away more money than any other man of 
his inches or avoirdupois in the county, if not in 
the State. The good jokes and sayings of his would 
fill a book, and make interesting reading, too. Ilis 
love of fun is the strongest element in his character. 
Sample No. 1 of a lot : A number of San Francisco 
mining sharps had been to Washoe in an early day, 
and returning with sacks of ore from newly-dis- 
covered mines, stopped at his place. He listened to 
their speculations about the value of this and that 
package of ore, and after they had gone to bed, 
judiciously exchanged ores, putting in those he knew 
to be first-class. They continued their way to San 
Francisco, and hastened to put their specimens in the 
hands of the assayers. Their most extravagant 
hopes were realized. The ores assayed up into 
thousands. Companies were formed, the mines pur- 
chased, and the expectant millionaires started back 
in all haste to take possession and make their for- 
tunes, but no ores of the same sort were found. 
When they related the circumstances, they had the 
comforting remark that they were sold by old John, 
whereat they went home wiser, but not wealthier 
men. 

He was born in Yorkshire, England, July 14, 1825, 
emigrating when about ten years of age. He first 
lived in Canada, but afterwards in Vermont, coming 
to California in 1849 among the pioneers. He lived 
at Mokelumne Hill for some years, and ran the first 
ferry-boat that was established on the river, it being 
at first only a dug-out. He enlarged it to a plank- 
boat, capable of carrying three or four passengers, 



and finally sold out, having made all the money he 
wanted. Dr. Sober soon afterwards purchased the 
same institution for twelve thousand dollars, and 
expending some thirty thousand dollars more, inaugu- 
rated the Big Bar bridge. John was present at the 
birth of Mokelumne Hill, knew all its crooked habits; 
kcw all the defaulting treasurers, sheriffs, and tax- 
collectors; can tell more yarns of their doings than 
they or their friends will like to have recorded. He 
has made many rich discoveries in quartz and placer, 
but money would never stick to his fingers long 
enough to stain them a bit. What he had belonged 
to all his friends, and their name was legion. As the 
country became settled up, and the free, flush times 
of '49 became impossible, he retreated into the 
mountains, and is now manager and proprietor of 
the toll-road leading over the mountains from Ante- 
lope Springs to Kirkwood's and Carson valleys. He 
has a nice place some nine miles east of Volcano, 
where we advise all to repair who wish to catch a 
whiff of pioneer times, or get materials for a book 
of fun. 



JOHN W. HUTCHINS 

Is a native of the State of Maine, and was born in 
Hermon, Penobscot county, June 24, 1828. His 
father was one of the principal farmers and 
lumber-dealers of that section of the country, and 
our subject was trained to those callings during 
his early life. He received a common school edu- 
cation, and in 1853 cut loose from the ties that 
bound him to his native town, and sought his 
fortune in the far West. During the last-named 
year he arrived in California, and for ten years was 
engaged in mining in Amador county. In 1863 he 
entered the United States Army as a member of the 
seventh regiment, California Volunteers, and served 
as a soldier for about eighteen months. Ilis service 
was principally in Arizona, a country well calculated 
to destroy the ambition of the most valiant and 
patriotic of our boys in blue. After his discharge 
from the service he returned to Ciinton, where he 
has since resided. Mr. Hutchins has held the office 
of Justice of the Peace, being elected in 1856 and '57, a 
position he creditably filled. The history of his suc- 
cesses and reverses in fortune would fill an ordinary 
volume. He is unmarried. 



W. C. JONES 
Was born in Lewis county, Missouri, April 1, 1834, 
where he spent his boyhood until he was eighteen 
years of age. Being of an energetic temperament, 
he broke away from the comforts of home and made 
his way to the land of gold, by way of the plains, 
arriving in Diamond Springs, El Dorado county, Sep- 
tember 30, 1852, where he remained engaged in min- 
ing until 1857, when he removed to Amador county. 
He was married October 11, 1857, to Mrs. Elizabeth 




ISAAC LEPLEY. 



?OMMl.»«*f.srM(( W ua. 






L 



BIOGRAPHICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE SKETCHES. 



309 



Kelley, by whom he has had six children, four of 
whom are now living. He takes naturally to keep- 
ing hotel, having been mostly engaged in that busi- 
ness since his residence in the county. All the trav- 
elers on the road in 1859-60 will remember the com- 
forts of the Revere House under his management. 
He recently purchased a tract of one hundred and 
sixty acres among the romantic hills, two and one- 
half miles east of lone, wbieh he is fitting up as a 
pleasant stopping place, and as a resort for persons 
seeking rest and amusement. The character of his 
improvements will be best learned from the fine 
engraving of them which accompanies this volume. 



THOMAS KERR 
Was born in 1843 in Crawford county, Pennsylvania, 
where he remained until he was fourteen years of 
age, during which time he took advantage of such 
opportunities of informing his mind as the place 
afforded. He came to California in 1860, locating at 
once in the town of Amador which he has since made 
his home. For a few years he engaged in freighting, 
the immense quantities of timber and other supplies 
needed in the heavy mining around the town, mak- 
ing that a very extensive business. After four years 
of this kind of work he engaged in the livery busi- 
ness, which he has since followed. In 1871 he was 
married to Miss Augusta Fassett, a native of Illinois, 
who died February 25, 1880. Have three children, 
two boys and one girl. Mr. Kerr is a Californian in 
spirit and fact, his active years so far, having been 
given to the Golden State. 



STEPHEN P. KIDD 
Was born in Colne, Lancashire, England, in 1825, liv- 
ing there until he was twenty-three years of age, fol- 
lowing the business of landscape gardener, seedsman 
and florist, callings for which he had been regularly 
educated. In 1848 he came to the United States, and 
four years afterwards to California in company with 
the Surface family, who settled on Dry creek. In 
the Summer after his arrival he engaged in mining at 
the old Winters Bar, opposite Lancha Plana, follow- 
ing his trade the following Summer on the rich lands 
of Dry creek. Being naturally of a scientific turn of 
mind he soon mastered all that was known of mines 
and mining, and his advice became valuable in con- 
nection with the mines afterwards discovered in 
Nevada, some of the most extensive and profitable 
ventures in that State being inaugurated by him. 
The fine, artistic plans on the Edwards place, now 
owned by Younglove. was the result of his skill as a 
landscape gardener. After spending some years in 
the Nevada mines he finally settled down on a beau- 
tiful place in Jackson valley to make a home for his 
young and interesting family, he having married 
Miss Mary M. Goodding December 13, 1870; but God 



disposes. In the midst of his projects he was taken 
sick, and on Sunday eve he breathed his last. 

As a man Mr. Kidd was quiet and unassuming, 
always cheei-ful, with a kindly word for all. In his 
business relations he was exact and reliable, manag- 
ing with justice and discretion. Nature forms but 
few such men. 



MERWIN LEACH 
Was born in Franklin county, Vermont, in 1837, and 
came across the plains in 1860, bringing up in 
Amador City, where he lived for ten years. In 
1870 he went to Plymouth, residing there for one 
year; thence to Church Union mines in El Dorado 
county for two years; thence to Kelsey, where he 
remained until April 18, 1881, when he returned to 
Plymouth, and purchased a half-interest in the store 
of Thompson Davis, with whom he has since 
remained. He is not married at the time of this 
writing. 

ISAAC LEP LEI. 

It is to be regretted that we have no personal his- 
tory of this distinguished inventor. We can only 
form an opinion of his early days by the fruits of his 
matureM mind and judgment. Those who are famil- 
iar with mining will appreciate the value of the 
machine at sight. For the information of many of 
our readers who have never seen a mine, we may 
explain that thousands of framed timbers are put 
into the mines; some to secure the walls from coming 
together when the vein matter is extracted; some to 
secure the passages from one part of the mine to the 
other, in short, timber is wanted everywhere, with 
mortises and corresponding tenons or slots, as the 
case may be. In a building every stick is planned 
beforehand; a hundred men may work at the differ- 
ent parts, but in a mine no one knows what is wanted 
until the emergency comes. The bell rings; an order 
comes for a timber of certain dimensions with tenons 
and slots; the safety of the mine, perhaps of human 
lives, depends upon having it immediately. Some- 
times dozens of carpenters are kept in waiting for 
such emergencies; when the order comes they jump 
on a log and work as if at a fire; but haste and want 
of space makes confusion, and liability of mistakes 
and accidents. The automatic timber-framing 
machine is equal to a dozen carpenters. The pow- 
erful cutting head, which, by means of hand screws, 
is easily handled, bends down to the log and rapidly 
chips a tenon or a slot, cutting a bevel or a circle at 
the will of the operator; makes a mortise, enlarges 
it to the required dimensions, and in a moment the 
piece goes whizzing down the shaft a thousand feet, 
ready to go in where the cracking timbers and 
crumbling rocks indicate a coming disaster, and the 
danger is averted. The following description, with 
accompanj'ing engraving, from the Scientific and 
Mining Press, will be read with pleasure : — 



310 



lllsTnKY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 




Isaac Lepley, of Amador City, Amador county, 
has recently invented a novel piece of mechanism, 
which is intended for the framing of timbers of all 
kinds, which are to be joined together. One of the 
machines is now in operation at the Keystone Con- 
solidated mine, Amador. 

The invention consists in the employment of a cut- 
ter bead or heads, which are caused to rotate upon a 
suitable frame, and this frame is moved both verti- 
cally and horizontally by means of slides and guides, 
so that the cutters may be carried across the timbers 
upon either one or all four sides to form a tenon, dove- 
tail, or other cut; and if desired, a round tenon may 
be formed by the use of a link which has one end 
fixed to the frame, so that the slides will move in a 
manner to carry the tool around in a circle. 

In the engraving, A represents the cutter head, 
•which is caused to rotate upon its shaft by a belt to 
the pulley, B, so that the cutter acts as a planer. It 
may be of sufficient height for the tenon to be cut, 
or by moving the timber or carriage the length de- 
sired may be cut at two or more operations. Its 
shaft is journaled at the top of a frame, 0. This 
frame is moved up and down in guides upon the 
frame, E, by means of friction rollers, F, which press 
against a vertical central bar, K, which extends par- 
allel with the frame, C. These rollers, F, are driven 
by pinions upon their shafts, and a hand wheel or 
other device upon a main shaft at the end of the 
machine, as shown. 

The frame, E, is also adapted to move horizontally 
upon the main frame, G, by means of similar gearing 
to that which moves the frame, C, and by these two 
motions, it will be seen that the cutters may be 
moved in any direction. The log is laid upon a car- 
riage with its end near the frame, and its height is 
so adjusted, that when the frame, E, is moved across 
horizontally, the revolving cutters will be carried 
across, so as to make a cut to the depth desired. 



The frame, C, is then moved downward, and the 
cutters will cut the vertical face upon one side. The 
frame, C, then remains stationary, while the frame, 
E, is moved horizontally backward upon the guides 
on the main frame, and the cutters will complete the 
lower part of the tenon. The frame, E, is then held 
stationary and the frame, C, is again moved upward, 
so that the cutters will be carried upward across the 
remaining side, and the tenon will be finished. 

The cutters are blades secured to a head similar to 
those used upon planer-heads, but in order to make 
the vertical cut at the inner end of the tenon so that 
it will present a clean, square surface, sliding plates 
are fitted to move in grooves on the end of the planer- 
head. Their outer ends are toothed, or formed so as 
to make the proper cut, and they are held in place 
by set-screws. 

In order to allow the cutter shaft and its driving 
pulley to move in the directions and to the distances 
as described, the belt which drives it is carried over 
tightening pulleys, suitably arranged in sliding 
frames with weights. 

The tenons here described are those which are 
usually made upon the ends of timbers in timbering 
up mines. The timbers are united, and these tenons 
allow the. timbers to be properly set together. It 
will be obvious, however, that this apparatus may be 
employed to make any kind of a cut on a timber, or 
to square up the ends of timber, as the cutter may 
be moved in any direction required. Upon the end 
of the cutter shaft, opposite the planer-head, is a 
peculiarly shaped boring and cutting tool, J, which 
is intended to form mortises either in the sides or ends 
of timbers. The end of this tool is nearly flat, but is 
provided with a cutting bit, which enables it to enter 
the timber as far as may be desired. 

The sides of the tool (which is cylindrical in shape) 
are cutaway so as to form an enclosed cutting edge, 
and after it has entered the timber far enough to give 



BIOGRAPHICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE SKETCHES. 



311 



the required depth, the frame, E, may be moved upon 
the frame, G, where the side cutter will cut away 
the wood until the mortise is as long as desired. 
The same style of cutter may be employed to form 
what is termed the boxing, or the depression which 
is cut across the timber equal to the length of the 
mortise, to receive the foot of the timber which is 
tenoned to fit the mortise. 

The tenon to fit the mortise is formed by the cut- 
ter, A, in the same manner as has been described, 
except that the ends must be rounded to fit the ends 
of the mortise, which may be left curved by the 
tool, J. In order to make these rounded ends to 
the tenon, it is necessary to produce a compound 
motion of the two frames, G and E, one of which, as 
before described, moves vertically, while the other 
moves horizontally. 

This compound motion is produced by the aid of 
the arm, K, which has one end pivoted to the side of 
the vertically moving frame, C. The opposite end is 
adapted to slip into a slot in a block, L, which is piv- 
oted to a slide, M, this slide moving in a slot in the 
bar, N, which extends from end to end of the frame, 
G, and inside the frames, E and . Two stops, 0, are 
fitted to be moved to or from each other by the long 
right and left screw, P, these stops having projections 
which enter the slot in the bar, JV, and they serve to 
limit the motion of the slide, M, and block, L. When 
a tenon is to be made with rounded ends, the bar or 
arm, K, is slipped through the slot in the block, L, 
and is secured by a set screw. This- arm is secured 
at a distance from the point about which the arm 
turns, equal to half the thickness of the proposed 
tenon, added to the whole diameter of the cutter- 
head, as the latter must pass all around the tenon. 

The stops, 0, are adjusted by turning the screw, P, 
until they are at a distance apart equal to the width 
of the tenon to be made, plus the diameter of the 
cutter-head. 

The operation will thus be as follows: The frame, 
C. being set at a point which will allow the cutter to 
form the top of the tenon, the frame, E, is moved 
horizontally upon the main frame, G, until the slide, 
M, has moved the distance between the stops, 0. 
This carries the cutter across the top of the tenon to 
the point where the curve of one side or edge com- 
mences. From this point the frame, C, is moved 
downward, and the frame, E, horizontally, the arm, 
K, acting as the radius or link to hold the frames in 
their relative positions and cutter to its work, until it 
has passed around the side, and formed the curve at 
that part of the tenon. The arm, K, having then 
passed around its pivot to form a half circle, the frame, 
C, is allowed to remain stationary, and the frame, E, is 
moved along to allow the cutter to form the bottom 
of the tenon, the slide, M, moving the distance 
between the stops, 0. From this point the curve at 
the opposite side of the tenon is formed in the same 
manner as before described. 

If it is desired to form a complete cylindrical tenon, 



the stops, 0, are curved up close to the slide, M, the 
block, L, having been secured to the arm, K; at a dis- 
tance from the centre pivot equal to half the diame- 
ter of the proposed tenon, plus the diameter of the 
cutter, and the frames, C and E, are then moved 
simultaneously, so as to produce a compound move- 
ment, the resultant of which will be to form a cylin- 
drical tenon. 

This machine is applicable to work upon any form 
of timber, and make any kind of a cut. The tool, J, 
may be made with cutters which can be detached 
to be sharpened or renewed. Mr. Lepley, who may 
be addressed for further information, at Amador 
City, has applied for a patent for his invention 
through the Mining and Scientific Press Patent 
Agency. 



JAMES LESSLEY 
Is one of our valuable men who go straight to work; 
satisfied with moderate prospects they turn neither 
to the right nor left, but keep on with slow and steady 
accumulations until they outstrip many who start in 
life with much more brilliant prospects. He was 
born in Putnam county, Missouri, February 16, 1810, 
and came to California with his parents in 1854, 
making his home since that time in Amador county. 
His education has been rather practical than other- 
wise, being acquired mostly in business operations. 
He was employed with a team soon after coming 
here, and in due time acquired a team of his own and 
engaged in the lumber trade until he became one of 
the principal dealers and manufacturers in the 
county. He was married, August 22, 1869, to Miss 
Mary McGhee. They have seven children, two boys 
and five girls. 



M. J. LITTLE 

Was born in Bristol, Lincoln county, Maine, January 
14, 1821, where he resided until he was fifteen years 
of age, getting such education as the town afforded. 
Like most young men in a maritime town he had to 
try his fortunes on the sea, going abroad on his first 
voyage at the age of sixteen. Being faithful and 
efficient, he was promoted from one position to 
another. In 1814, we find him second mate; in 
1846, first mate, and two years later in charge of 
the vessel John F. Strout. As might have been 
expected of one so ambitious and energetic, the gold 
excitement swept him off his feet, and a few months 
later found him on his way around the Horn on the 
brig Hungarian, arriving in San Francisco April 27, 
1850. He remained in that Babel of nationalities but 
one month; then purchasing a small row-boat, made 
his way up the Sacramento and Feather rivers to 
Maiysville, and from thence to the Butte creek 
mines. From here he soon returned to San Fran- 
cisco, and made another start to the mines, this time 
to Stephens Bar, on the Tuolumne river, in Tuolumne 
county, where he engaged in mining, also in trading 



3 1 i 



BISTORT? OF AMADOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



in general merchandise until L853, when be sold out 
and traveled around the mines, visiting Mariposa and 
other places, finally Bottling down in Jackson in 
1854, which place he has Bince made his home. Ee 
followed mining until L863, when the unsurpassed 
tVnit and other California productions led him to 
adopl agriculture as a calling, which ko has followed 
Bince. He located al thai time the farm of one hun- 
dred and twenty-eight acres of land adjoining the 
town of Jackson. It is pleasantly situated, has a 
fino orchard and vineyard, wilh good buildings, and 
has in itself enough ehartns to satisfy a reasonable 
mind, and induce one to forego voyages and explora- 
tions and live contentedly under his own vine and fig 
tree. He was married, .March 18, 18Gl,to Miss Mary 
I). Pope, of Sherburne, Chenango county, New York. 
Mr. Little has the same straightforward, honest 
ways which induced the owners of vessels to entimst 
thousands of dollars worth of property to' his care 
when he was young, and enjoys the fullest confidence 
of the community. 



ROBERT LUDGATE 



Was born in the city of Watcrford, Waterford county, 
Ireland, September 22. 1833. lie came to New Or- 
leans while still a boy and from thence to California 
in 1850, settling a year later in lone valley, which 
place he made his permanent residence. lie was 
engaged most of the time in stock-raising and farm- 
ing until 18G3, when he became associated with J. 
W. Surface in the livery business, in which he con- 
tinued until his death. In 1877 he was elected to 
represent the people of Amador county in the Legis- 
lature of California. He had been in feeble health 
for some years, and was illy qualified to perform the 
arduous duties of a Legislator, but with the consci- 
entiousness and fidelity characteristic of his whole 
life, he gave his unremitting attention to the business 
until nature, overtasked, gave way, and he breathed 
his last February 15, 1878, at ten o'clock, having been 
present in his seat the same day. The next morning, 
after the calling of the Assembly to order, the follow- 
ing resolution was offered by Mr. Dunlap, his associ- 
ate member from the county, and unanimously 
adopted by a rising vote : — 

Resolved, By the Assembly, the Senate concurring, 
that a committee of five members of the Assembly 
be appointed by the Speaker, and five Senators be 
appointed by the President of the Senate to attend 
the obsequies of the Honorable Robert Ludgate, 
on Sunday, the 17th, at 3 o'clock, p. m., at the town 
of lone City, in Amador county, and further that the 
Assembly attend the funeral in a body. 

Upon this resolution being received in the Senate 
Chamber it was also adopted, the President appoint- 
ing Brown of Amador, Craig of San Francisco, 
Rogers of San Francisco, Brown of El Dorado, and 
Nunan of San Francisco a committee to escort the 
remains to the late member's home. The committee 



from the Assembly was Dunlap of Amador, Wheat of 
( lalaveras, Meyers of San Joaquin, Miller of E! Dorado 
and Ames of San Mateo. A resolution was also 
passed to wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty 
i\:iy-. and as a mark of respect both houses adjourned 
until the following Monday. In Sacramento, the 
Odd Follows, of which body he was a distinguished 
member, assembled at their lodges and encamp- 
ments and made arrangements to escort the remains 
of their late brother to the train which was to take 
them to the Amador branch of the road. On Sun- 
day an immense cortege, consisting of the various 
branches of the Odd Fellows in regalia, members of 
the Legislature, delegation of citizens from lone, and 
private citizens, accompanied the remains from the 
hotel to the depot. At Gait the escort was met by 
the members of the lone Lodge No. 51 and the remains 
transferred to the cars running to lone, where the 
cortege was received by the citizens of the county 
generally and accompanied to the home of the late 
member. The funeral services were observed the 
following day according to the established form of 
the society of Odd Fellows, the Rev. J. T. White act- 
ing as clergyman, assisted by the Rev. E. Jacka and 
J. W. Huston, N. G. 

As a man Mr. Ludgate was upright in his charac- 
ter, warm in his feelings, strong in his convictions 
and outspoken in his opinions ; a devoted husband 
and father, and a firm, unwaveriug friend. In busi- 
ness transactions his word was a bond, as sacred as 
though God were called to witness. He leaves a 
Avidow and three children, one boy and two girls, to 
sorrow for his untimely end, and inherit the honor 
of his untarnished name. Her maiden name was 
Mary O'Brien, and they were married November 8, 
1S69. 



O. E. MARTIN 



Was born in the town of Guilford, Maine, May 28, 
1848. Mr. Martin had the misfortune to lose his 
parents at an early age, aud has no recollection of 
the tender love and care of a mother. His grand- 
parents made the loss less to him by watching over 
bis young life, be living with them until he was 
eighteen years of age, at the town of Montville. 
From there he went to Boston, where he spent two 
years in the drug business. During the next four 
years he lived in Kansas, Missouri, and Maine, or at 
least such portions of the time as he was not travel- 
ing, for the desire to see the world was as strong 
in him as in most young men, and must be gratified 
ere the future business man can settle down to the 
work of life. In January, 1873, he left his native 
State for California, arriving in Sacramento in 
June, and immediately located in the county of Ama- 
dor, at Sutter Creek, where he was engaged in the 
milk business for two or three years. In 1S77 he 
was confidential clerk in the lumber establishment of 




THOMAS KERR. 



7<jH<Pt0t\l*w£'i T , OAMUNU. 



BIOGRAPHICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE SKETCHES. 



313 



Tarr & Co., which resulted in the purchase of the 
business with J. O. Bartlett of Sutter Creek. 

At the present time the firm name is O. E. Martin 
& Co., being the only extensive dealers in lumber in 
the town of Amador. The lumber is brought from 
Tarr's mill, which is in the mountains twenty-one 
miles distant. 

Mr. Martin was married November 16, 1880, to 
Mrs. Sarah E. Price, a native of Illinois. 



L. McLAINE 
Was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward's Island, 
March 22, 1830, where he remained until he reached 
manhood's estate. He received a liberal education, 
and in May, 1850, bade farewell to his early associa- 
tions to seek his fortune, in the much-talked-of Cal- 
ifornia. In October of the same year he located in 
Volcano, Amador county, and for ten years followed 
the usual occupation of those days. He also served 
six years as Supervisor for District No. 2. In 
1869 he commenced business as a banker and broker, 
which he has followed to the present time, his pur- 
chases of gold-dust and bullion often amounting to 
twenty thousand dollars per month. He has an 
assaying department connected with his establish- 
ment. He is at present also superintendent of the 
Consolidated Amador Hydraulic Gold Mining and 
Land Company. 

He was married in 1872, to Miss Sarah E., 
daughter of Dr. Wm. Ives, of Volcano. Mrs. Mc- 
Laine is a native of Moorefield, Hardy county, West 
Virginia, and was born in 1849. Their union has 
been blessed with five children. 



JAMES MEEHAN 



Is a native of county Monohan, Ireland, where he 
was born November 1, 1833. Coming to America at 
the age of thirteen and engaging in business, his 
education was somewhat limited, but by study and 
application during leisure hours he succee'ded in fully 
remedying the want, and is remarkably well in- 
formed on all general topics. He came to New 
Orleans on the sailing vessel George Washington, 
arriving in July, 1847, in company with a brother, 
where he remained until 1849. On the breaking out 
of the gold excitement he embarked on the old sail- 
ing vessel Ontario, which carried him safely to Califor- 
nia, though the vessel was nine months on the way, 
reaching San Francisco in 1850. After taking a look 
at the chaos of people of all nations and colors, he 
left for the mines, making his first efforts at mining 
in Chinese Camp, in Tuolumne county. The follow- 
ing two or three years he alternated from Downie- 
ville to the American river, and thence to Tuolumne 
again, finally reaching Volcano, where his wandering 
propensities were cured by meeting Miss Mary A. 
Rawle, who, in 1856, became his wife, since which 
time he has had a residence in Amador county. 
40 



During the year 1852 he made a flying visit to New 
Orleans, but he had seen too many of the advantages 
of California to remain in the older States, and soon 
returned to the State to make it a permanent home. 
At Volcano he engaged in mining, with varied suc- 
cess, until 1867, when he was elected to the position 
of County Treasurer, which place he held for four 
years, having been re-elected at the end of his first 
term. He then engaged in quartz mining for four 
years, when he was again elected to the position of 
Treasurer, which he holds to the pi'esent time. He 
has executed the duties of the office with marked 
ability. He was the author of the proposition to 
devote a portion of the county funds to the extin- 
guishment of the county debt, which, under the 
operation of the law, has gradually been liquidated, 
and bids fair to soon take its place among the events 
of the past. He has operated quite extensively in 
quartz mining, having been a stockholder in the 
Kennedy, Monterichard, and other valuable mines; 
also owns a large tract of gravel-mining ground near 
Kennedy flat, and also a quartz vein called the Vol- 
unteer mine, east of the Kennedy. 

He has had nine children, six of whom, four boys 
and two girls, are living. 



HIRAM C. MEEK 
Is the patriarch of Amador county, dating his birth 
as far back as 1792. He is a native of Virginia, a 
countryman and neighbor of Washington, whom 
he saw frequently, and remembers well. Since that 
time and this, eighty years apart, what a change. 
Then, Jefferson and Adams, Burr and Hamilton, 
were engaged in the political strife, which led to the 
death of one of the men, the political and social ruin 
of another, the destruction of the old Federal party, 
and the creation of a Democratic party, which, 
through a nearly unbroken line of sixty years, 
shaped the political character of the United States. 
Well may one say with Everett, " Venerable man, 
you have come down to us from a former genera- 
tion." The last of the Revolutionary soldiers de- 
parted long since. Soon the last of that century, 
the last of those who were contemporaneous with 
the great men of that age, will have vanished; and 
the time is not far distant when to have seen a man 
who had seen Washington will be a matter of pride. 
Major Meek is perhaps the only man in California 
who has seen the father of his country; the only 
connecting link between this and the century just 
passed. The Major is a brother of the famous trap- 
per, whose book has been read with such eagerness 
by all the youth of America, and accompanied him 
in nearly all his travels. He is now settled down 
in comfortable quarters, surrounded by members of 
his family, enjoying a serene old age. His portrait, 
an excellent likeness, indicates an amount of vitality 
that justifies the expectation of his reaching the 
beginning of his second century. 



:;i i 



IMSTOKY OF AMADOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



GEOBGE MOORE, 

Judge of tlif Superior Court of the county of A.ma 
dor, was born in Danville, Boyle county, Kentucky. 
February 14, I860, and is, therefore, at this time 
thirty one years of age. His parents were W. [.and 
Elizabeth ('. Moore, the former being a native of 
Pennsylvania, the latter a native of Kentucky. 

Judge M e was educated for the profession oflaw, 

having graduated from Centre College, Kentucky, in 
the year 1870, whereupon, after pursuing his studies 
for two years in the law office of DurhamA Jacobs, 
at Danvillo, lie attended the law lectures at Harvard 
College, Cambridge, Massachusetts. When but 
twenty live years old lie was appointed one of the 
Tilden and Hendricks electors for the Eighth district 
of Kentucky. In the Winter of 1877 he emigrated 
to the Stati' of California, and commenced the prac- 
tice of law in Amador county soon afterwards. 
After the adoption of the New Constitution in 1879, 
which brought about such important and extreme 
changes in our judicial system, Judge Moore was 
nominated and elected as the presiding officer of 
the new Superior Court for the county of Ama- 
dor, being at the time of his elevation to the 
bench one of the youngest judges of that court in 
the State. Judge Moore is of a turn of mind pecul- 
iarly adapting him to the position which he occu- 
pies; logic, and its natural sequence, law, being 
with him almost spontaneous growths. The writer 
recentlj r had an opportunity of witnessing his ability 
in the . great mining case involving the Empire 
and Pacific mines of Plymouth. Some of the 
most celebrated lawyers in the State, among whom 
were Belcher, Estee, and Boalt, well known in San 
Francisco, were present. His rulings and decisions 
won the respect of the entire Bar. It is hardly 
probable that Judge Moore will remain in the mount- 
ains when the cities offer such brilliant rewards for 
men of his ability. He is pleasantly situated, as the 
sketch of his house in another part of the book will 
show. 



MATTHEW MURRAY, 
The subject of the following sketch, is a native of 
Ireland, born in County Cavan, September 15, 1834, 
where he remained until, at the age of fourteen 
years, he emigrated with his parents to the "United 
States, and settled in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, 
where for seven years he was engaged in the grocery 
business and in the cultivation of his mind, devoting 
his leisure moments to the study of such branches as 
are required in the interests of merchandising. 
Desiring a richer and more extensive field for the 
cultivation of his business talent, he decided upon 
California as the proper place, and landed in San 
Francisco on the second day of July, 1855. He soon 
after located near Michigan Bar, in Sacramento 
county, and was engaged in selling goods during the 
succeeding three years. His aspirations did not lead 



him into the mines in search of an immediate fortune, 
but his ambitions were centered in the business he 
adopted when he first arrived in America. In 1858 
Mr. Murray removed to Lancha Plana, Amador 
county, and still continued the mercantile business 
until L863, since which time he has been interested 
as owner and superintendent of water ditches used 
in working the mines. By strict application to bus- 
iness he has been successful in nearly all of his 
business ventures. He is well known throughout the 
county, and has held the position of Supervisor of 
the First district for several years, and still remains 
in that office, performing the duties acceptably to his 
fellow-men and creditably to himself. 

Mr. Murray was married November 6, 1861, to 
Miss Celia E. Murray, and their union has proved 
fruitful, as the ten beautiful children, seven girls and 
three boys now living, can testify. 



JOHN NORTHTJP 



Was born in the town of Hamburg, Erie county, New 
York, October 5, 1822, and remained there until he 
reached the age of fifteen years. During that time 
he attended school, and acquired a thorough knowl 
edge of the common branches taught in the schools 
to which he had access. His next location was in 
Cass county, Michigan, where for fifteen years he 
was a tiller of the soil. The knowledge acquired 
during that time was of great advantage to him. in 
the succeeding years of his life. In 1852 Mr. 
Northup came to California, and engaged in the 
usual occupation of. those days, that of mining, in 
Amador county, and for about nine years followed 
that pursuit, experiencing the ups and downs of fort- 
une peculiar to the early searchers for the golden 
nuggets. At length, after his long experience in that 
direction, he turned his attention to other pursuits, 
and engaged in farming, and for the past four years 
has been the " champion melon man " of the Pacific 
coast, often planting as high as one hundred to one 
hundred and fifty acres to that kind of fruit, and 
shipping the melons to San Francisco and Oakland, 
his sales sometimes running as high as two thou- 
sand melons per week. His " melon patch " is in 
San Joaquin county, and he was the first to ship fruit 
direct to the city from his locality for the wholesale 
trade, in which he has been successful. 

His home place is almost a paradise, he having an 
abundance of fruit trees and vines, which are care- 
fully cared for and " show their keeping." His house 
is beautifully situated near the Mokelumne river, 
and is one of the prettiest places in the county. 

He was married in 1856, to Miss Ann M. Harmon, 
and they have six children, two girls and four boys. 

Mr. Northup has the reputation of being fair and 
square in his dealings, and thoroughly wide awake 
when any business is on hand, not often being over- 
reached. 



BIOGRAPHICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE SKETCHES. 



315 



R. W. PALMER 

Is a native of Massachusetts; came around the Horn, 
or rather through the Straits of Magellan, in 1849, 
being among the first, and perhaps last of the Argo- 
nauts to make that interesting but perilous passage. 
The adventures of the passengers among the sav- 
ages, as related by him, are among the marvelous 
things of a marvelous age. He was engaged in 
trade for many years at Sacramento, but in 1856 
moved to Lancha Plana, engaging in merchandising 
in company with the Hon. J. W. D. Palmer, with whom 
he remained until the partial failure of that camp 
as a mining region. The amount of goods sold and 
exchanged for dust would astonish a merchant of 
the present day. At that time the river, bluffs, and 
hills, were all giving up their treasures, and thou- 
sands of dollars then were but as tens now; but all 
things must have an end. Lancha Plana followed 
the ordinary custom, and failed to pay. Upon 
removing to Jackson, about 1865, he engaged in 
the livery business, and still keeps first-class turn- 
outs for those who wish to explore the country on 
business, or pleasure. He is married, and has an 
interesting family; is pleasantly situated, and if not 
acquiring riches, is in comfortable circumstances. 
He is a public spirited man, ready to leave his own 
business to benefit his neighbors; is generous and 
hospitable, ready to entertain his friends with the 
best in the house, or with the best of stories, of 
which he keeps an inexhaustible supply always on 
hand. 



JAMBS F. PARKS 
Was born in Hooper county, Missouri, on the ninth 
of September, 1835, where he remained until he was 
six years of age, at which time he removed with his 
parents, to Benton county. His early life was passed 
in his native State, but as youth ripened into man- 
hood, he was not content to remain quietly at home 
while other young men were exploring the much- 
talked-of gold fields of the Pacific, and he accord- 
ingly bade adieu to those he loved and started out to 
seek his fortune with the countless thousands that 
were flocking to the Golden State of California. 

In 1855 he reached his objective point, and at once 
repaired to Kern river, during the great excitement 
upon the discovery of those " diggins." He did not 
find what he sought in that locality, and soon after 
engaged in mining in Mariposa county, and after- 
wards in Nevada county. In 1861 he crossed the 
Sierras to the Territory of Nevada, and for the suc- 
ceeding eight years was engaged in mining at 
Yirginia City. In 1869 he went to White Pine Dis- 
trict, and from there to Plumas county, California, 
where he was appointed foreman of the Indian Val- 
ley mine. On the first day of April, 1873, he came 
to Amador county, to accept the responsible position 
of foreman of the Keystone mine, where he has 
since been employed. As a foreman he stands second 



to none in the State, always the same affable gentle- 
man, much esteemed by his employers and the 
people generally. 

His years of experience among the great mines of 
Nevada, place him in the front rank as a practical 
mining man, and, to add to his other accomplish- 
ments, he is a thorough practical surveyor and civil 
engineer, and does all the work in that line for his 
company. 

Mr. Parks was married October 8, 1871, to Miss 
Mary Phebey, of Sacramento, and they have four 
children. 



PALMER N. PECK, 
The subject of the following sketch, is a native of 
New York State, having been born in Yates, Orleans 
county, December 23, 1831. During his youth he 
removed with his parents to the State of Michigan, 
where he remained untd nineteen years of age. He 
had during these years acquired a good education, 
and after leaving school entered a plow factory at 
Peru, Illinois, where he was employed about one 
year. The western fever fastened itself upon him 
and like thousands of others he took up a line of 
march toward the setting sun, crossing the plains in 
1852, and spending that Winter in Salt Lake City, 
Utah. The following Spring he continued his jour- 
ney to California, arriving by the southern route in 
San Bernardino on the 15th of May, 1853. 

After a stay of about three months in that town 
he removed to Stockton, San Joaquin county, where 
he had a step-brother. For the next three years he 
was engaged in business in that place, generally mer- 
chandising. He then became a trader in the southern 
mines, and for two years did an extensive business. 
Giving up this last enterprise he went to Tuolumne 
county and engaged in mining operations, which 
proved very unprofitable for him. 

His next move was to Volcano, Amador county, 
where he has since resided, and generally engaged 
in mining, owning at the present time some thirty- 
one acres of " mining ground," from which he will 
undoubtedly realize a handsome fortune, as he fully 
understands manipulating such enterprises. He is 
also interested in flumes and mines in other places. 

Mr. Peck is well and favorably known throughout 
the mines of California as a man of experience and 
worth, and is universally respected. He is still 
a single man and his elegant home is without a 
mistress. 



A. PETTY 



Was born at Circleville, Pickaway county, Ohio, 
August 6, 1820. At the age of eight years he, 
with his parents, emigrated to Missouri. In 1842 he 
removed to the State of Wisconsin, and worked in 
the lead mines of that State during the Winter and 
followed his trade, that of plasterer, during the 
Summer, for about seven years, In 1849 he located 



316 



HISTnKY OK AMADOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



in the town of MoOJregor, Iowa, where he resided 
until December 28, 1852, al which time he started 
for California with ox teams, accompanied l>\ his 
wife and two children. They oros ed the State of 

Iowa in winter, ami arrived at Council Bluffs, 

March II. 1853, where they encountered a terrible 

BnOW-StOrm. May 5th they crossed the Missouri 
river, and were fairly on their long and tedious 
journey, the incidents connected with which would 
till B large volume. The Indians were very trouble- 
some, and they had many thrilling adventures with 
members of •• Mr Lo's " band. Finally they reached 
California and settled at Volcano, Amador county, 
September 1">. !*•">■'!, having, while en route, remained 
twenty-one days with the saints at Salt Lake, Utah. 

Mr. Petty turned his attention to mining as soon 
as his affairs could be arranged, and for the succeed- 
ing sixteen months prospected the country without 
finding his expected bonanza. lie then gave up the 
search for gold in the earth and looked in other chan- 
nels for his supply, opening a hotel which he con- 
ducted but a short time. He then, in connection 
with Captain Richards, John James, and others, 
formed a company for the purpose of opening abed- 
rock flume, or open cut, through the canon below the 
town. They prosecuted this enterprise for about 
two years, expending some sixty-five thousand dol- 
lars, which was a dead loss. Mr. Petty has occasion- 
ally followed mining since that time, and also his 
trade, as circumstances required. 

In January, 1880, he bought the St. George hotel 
at Volcano, and has since been the proprietor thereof. 
He fully understands catering to the wants of the 
traveling public, and is one of the few men who 
know how to keep a hotel. In 1879 Mr. Petty was 
elected County Assessor of Amador county, which 
position he fills at the present time. 

He was married in 1841 to Miss Ophelia Cooper, 
and they have three children. 



J. E. PETTITT 



W as born in Licking county, Ohio, November 16, 1828, 
which place was his home until 1853; engaged mostly 
in farming and raising stock. In 1853 he came to 
California via Panama, and immediately located on 
Indian creek, in the northern part of the present 
county, or in what then was El Dorado county, 
making this county his home since that time. He 
followed mining for several years, but in 1869 turned 
to farming, locating on the place he now occupies. 
Though making farming his principal business, he 
has combined with it stock-raising and freighting, 
the immense amounts of lumber used making that 
business profitable. 

He was married December 25, 1855, to Miss Chris- 
tina Cox, a native of Indiana, and his family consists 
of himself, wife, three girls and two boys. 



B. S. POTTEE 

Is a native of the famous Wooden Nutmeg State, 
which has sent such a vast, number of keen business 
men into the commercial channels of the nation. He 
was born in the town of Litchfield, Connecticut, 
November 23, 1828, from which place he moved to 
Platteville, Wisconsin, in 1847, coming overland to 
Volcano, California, in 181)2. After mining in that 
vicinity for about a year, he moved to Dry town, and 
spent about one year in mining on Poor Man's creek; 
thence to Arkansas diggings, near Michigan Bar, 
where he kept hotel in company with Geo. W. Harris. 
In 1860 he removed to Buckeye valley, where he 
raised stock until 1863, when he went to Poker- 
ville, in the vicinity of Plymouth. When the mines 
failed at Pokerville he moved to Plymouth, then 
beginning to attract attention as a quartz mining 
region, where he has since remained engaged in 
various kinds of business, mostly teaming and lum- 
bering. In 1873 he opened a lumber yard to sup- 
ply the demand consequent upon the rapid building 
of the town. He was married, in 1858, to Miss Har- 
riet Louisa Howard, of Forest Home. They have 
had fourteen children, six of whom are living. 



HON. W. H. PROUTY. 

The subject of this sketch is a native of the Buck- 
eye State. He was born March 27, 1837, in Knox 
county, Ohio, his early years being spent on a 
farm. In 1846, in obedience to the general impulse 
to go west, the family removed to Jasper county, 
Iowa, being among the pioneers of that region. In 
1852 they fell into the column of the California emi- 
gration and started across the plains. The emigra- 
tion of that year was perhaps the largest that ever 
wended its way to the Golden State; and its march 
resembled the retreat of an army more than a tri- 
umphal march of settlers to a promised land. The 
grass was eaten off for miles away from the road, 
making long detours necessary to keep the stock in 
condition to travel. To add to these difficulties the 
father of the family sickened and died near the 
Devil's Gate. But the mother, picking up the reins of 
authority, with the aid of her elder sons, succeeded 
in reaching California, entering Volcano August 24th 
the same year, which, considering the circumstances, 
was a remarkably successful trip. After resting a 
few days, and watching the operation of extracting 
gold, the love for rural life asserted itself and the 
family continued their journey, settling in the beau- 
tiful valley which has since been their home. The 
younger child, W. H. Prouty, was early thrown on 
his own resources, and divided his time between farm- 
ing and attending such schools as the county then 
afforded, spending considerable time in attending 
school at Volcano. By the time he was twenty-one 
he had mastered the common English branches and 
accumulated a small capital of two thousand six 



BIOGRAPHICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE SKETCHES. 



317 



hundred dollars. It will be seen from this that he 
firmly set his face against the prevailing dissipations 
of those early days which swept so many young, and 
even middle-aged men into the vortex of destruction. 

Having arrived at man's estate the desire to see 
more of the world before he settled down induced 
him to visit the home of his childhood, and other 
places in the West, or valley of the Mississippi, where 
he remained about five years, engaged in various 
kinds of business, mostly farming, however. While 
here he became acquainted with his future wife and 
companion, Miss Helen Charlesworth, whom he mar- 
ried July 26, 1859, by whom he has had seven chil- 
dren, six of whom are now living. 

In 1863 the memory of the Golden State asserted 
itself and he turned his steps to California, making 
his way to the valley which had seen him while a 



boy assume the duties and labors of manhood. Four 
years later he purchased his present home, and set 
about improving it with the design of spending his 
remaining years here. His herds and flocks and 
well-filled granaries attest his judgment and devotion 
to his business. Like most successful business men 
he has little time or disposition to dabble in politics, 
but when a delegate to the Constitutional Conven- 
tion who understood the wants of the farming com- 
munity was. wanted, the people instinctively turned 
to him as one whose judgment and integrity could be 
relied upon. His actions in the convention fully jus- 
tified the opinions of his neighbors, and he returned 
to his home with unblemished honor. His farm and 
home is one of the pleasantest as well as most valua- 
ble places in the county, as will be seen by the view 
published in this work. 





, &< c/l 




B. P. RICHTMYER 
Was born in Conesville, Schoharie county, New 
York, June 17, 1824, at which place he resided until 
he was twenty-two years of age, receiving such edu- 
cation as the place afforded. In 1844 he removed 
to JDelevan, Wisconsin, where for some years he was 
employed in a flouring mill. In 1850, yielding to 
the prevailing California fever, he crossed the plains 
with the great emigration of that year, settling at 
Drytown the Autumn of the same season. Here he 
engaged in merchandising and mining, meeting with 
the usual gains and losses in those days; gains in 
large profits then customary, and losses by fires, 
bad debts, and ill-luck in mining, which, as many 
old Californians remember to their sorrow, were also 



common enough to be called customary. During 
his residence here, he was express agent for Wells, 
Pargo & Co., telegraph operator and agent, etc. 
He was associated with G-. W. Seaton in the famous 
Seaton mine, which, in its day, had the richest 
quartz ever found in the county. It was a pocket 
mine, however, and did not continue dividends any 
great length of time. In 1871, Mr. Richtmyer was 
elected County Clerk, his personal popularity carry- 
ing him much beyond the average ticket in the 
election. He now removed to Jackson, the county 
seat, which place he has since made his home. After 
serving his term as County Clerk, he became the 
agent again of Wells, Pargo & Co., this time at 
Jackson, and soon after was made an agent for the 



18 



BISTORT OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Western Union Telegraph Company, both of which 
positions he has Binee filled. In addition to his 
other duties, he has also filled the position of Notary 
Public ; was Beven years agenl for the Borne Mutual 
Insurance Company of California. Be is also pro- 
prietor and manager of Lhe Jackson water-works, 

and Midi is his methodical system of business that 

he oan do all these things justice, and still have time 
to devote to Bociety and domestic affairs. He was 
married September 10, 1855, to Miss Celina Van- 
netter. 

ka a man. Mr. liichtmyer is deservedly popular; 
unswerving integrity, sunvlter in modo, capability 
and modesty, being united in a remarkable degree. 
Be is unexceptionable in his habits, and if possessed 
of any faults at all, they are the amiable ones of 
being too generous and unsuspecting. He will be 
found equal to any trust the people of the county or 
State may choose to repose in him. 



J. H. KINGEH. 
The gentleman to whom this sketch refers is a 
native of the State of Missouri, born in Kay 
county, on the 14th of June, 1843. He remained in 
his native State until he was eleven years of age, 
and then, at that tender age, endured the hardships, 
privations, and toil, consequent with a trip across 
the plains to California, where he arrived sound of 
limb, and located at Butte City, Amador county. 
He remained there until 1855, and removed to Aque- 
duct City, where he resided about two years. He 
then settled in Jackson valley, and has since been 
a resident thereof. As a farmer, Mr. Ringer is a 
decided success, and is the owner of one of the finest 
ranches in the valle3 T , containing four hundred and 
thirty-one acres, nearly all of which is under a high 
state of cultivation, his improvements also being 
very fine. Mr. Ringer was married April 23, 1873, 
to Miss Emily E. Stamper, and is the proud father 
of three interesting girls. He is one of the most 
thorough and energetic business men in the county, 
and is rapidly making himself wealthy. 



JAMES EOBERTSON 
Was born in the town of Ottawa, Canada, November 
26. 182S, where he resided until 1854, engaged in 
farming. Catching the prevailing California fever, 
and perhaps tiring of the long and tedious cold 
Winters, he turned his steps towards the land of 
sunny hills and mild Winters, reaching San Francisco 
by the Panama route, about the first of November. 
He located on his present place in 1856, and has 
pursued the even tenor of his way ever since, swerv- 
ing neither to the right nor left. His place is a beau- 
liful location, overlooking Sacramento, Stockton and 
the adjoining plains, which places often come into 
distinct view, as the atmosphere clears up after a 



Storm. Bis business has been chiefly stock-raising 
and fanning. He owns four hundred and eighty 
acres "f land about midway between Jackson and 
lone, at the junction of the old Sutter Creek and 
.lack-son roads. Natural springs supply all the water 
necessary for domestic and stock purposes. For a 
view of'the house and beauty of situation see engrav- 
ing in the body of the book. Mr. Eobertson never 
married, but has had all the care of a father in 
helping to raise the younger members of the family, 
and also to support a mother in her declining years, 
the mother being spared to him until the Autumn of 
1880. 



BENJAMIN ROSS 
Was born in Portland, Maine, February 19, 1822, 
where he learned the trade of mounting pictures 
and mirrors; enlisted in Company E, Captain Charles 
B. Crowninshield, First Begiment, Massachusetts 
Mexican Volunteers ; served under General Taylor 
on the Rio Grande until September; then under Gen- 
eral Scott until the close of the war, being promoted 
during the time to the position of Sergeant Major. 
After the close of the war he returned to Boston, 
but started to California soon after by way of Fort 
Smith, Santa Fee and Salt Lake, arriving at Weber- 
town, El Dorado county, in September, 1850. In 
1852 moved to Volcano, which place he has since 
generally made his home except during a trip to 
Idaho in 1862-63. Has at different times been en- 
gaged in mining, merchandising, banking and 
surveying In 1872 he was appointed United States 
Deputy Surveyor for mines by Surveyor General J. 
K. Hardenburgh, which position he still holds under 
Surveyor General Wagner. In 1878 he was elected 
Supervisor for District No. 2, and is now, by 
virtue of seniority, chairman of the Board. He was 
married December 6, 1865, to Miss Mclntyre, and 
has a family of interesting children. 



JONATHAN SALLEE 



Was born in Lincoln county, Missouri, June 17, 1832, 
where he resided until he was nineteen years of age, 
when he crossed the plains with an ox-team, making 
the trip in four months. His first halt was at Mud 
Springs^ now El Dorado, but he soon moved to Weber 
creek, where he engaged in mining until 1859, when 
he returned to Missouri, where he remained until 
1871, when he returned to California with his family; 
for, however much we may think our State is played 
out, a few years' residence in the Eastern States is 
sure to make us long for the mild Winters and even 
hot Summers of this State. He located on his pres- 
ent ranch, about one mile and a quarter from Plym- 
outh, on the road to Oleta, where he has since resided. 
His place contains three hundred and twenty acres 
of good land, favorably located for business and 
health, it being in the elevated part of the county, 



BIOGRAPHICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE SKETCHES. 



319 



above the malarial region. He unites stock-raising 
with the cultivation of the farm, the country around 
being a fine range for cattle. 

He was married April 25, 1861, while in Missouri, 
to Miss Mary B. Beach, who died in the Spring of 
1865. By this marriage there were two children, a 
son and daughter. April 26, 1866, Mr. Sallee was 
married a second time, making Miss Sarah Jane 
Longfellow his wife. By this marriage they have had 
two children, but one of whom is living, the family 
now consisting of himself, wife, and three children. 



ARTHUR B. SANBORN, 

Of the firm of Turner & Sanborn, is a modest, indus- 
trious, and, consequently, promising young man. He 
was born in 1856, and received such education as 
could be obtained in the town of Jackson, until he 
was fifteen years old. He made the most of his 
opportunities, and, at the close of his school days, 
commenced a regular course of reading, political 
economy being a favorite study. He is steady and 
reliable, never having been given to the dissipations 
so common to the young men in California, or, in 
other words, he never took time to sow any wild 
oats, but went directly to work improving his mind. 
In 1879 he became connected with H. S. Turner in 
tbe management of the Jackson Sentinel, and is now 
part proprietor. He is a brilliant and forcible writer, 
and has a promising future. 



union has been blessed with eight children, seven of 
whom are living. The only son born to them was 
called to the other world on Thanksgiving day, 1879. 



JOHN SANDERSON 



Is a native of Ireland, and was born in the month of 
June, 1830. He remained in the " Emerald Isle," 
until he reached his seventeenth year, at which time 
he came to America, and settled in the grand old 
State of New York, where he remained three and 
one-half years. He then removed to New Jersey, 
and was a resident of that State until he came to the 
Pacific coast in 1864. Having had experience on 
the " briny deep " in his trip from his native country 
to the United States, he naturally chose the steamer 
as his mode of conveyance, and arrived in California 
by way of the Isthmus of Panama in due time, sound 
of limb and buoyant in spirits, seeking like all others 
an easy fortune in the mines of this State. His first 
location was at Sutter Creek, in Amador county, 
where he followed the occupation of a miner for 
about six years. From his savings he purchased the 
beautiful ranch that is now his home, located about 
one and one-half miles west of Sutter Creek. This 
home place of Mr. Sanderson's is admirably situated 
and contains 320 acres of choice land, which he is 
cultivating in a manner that is bound to make it pro- 
ductive. 

He was married on the 13th of February, 1863, to 
Miss Katy Hughes, a native of New York, and their 



BRUNO H. SCHACHT 

Is a native of Germany, born about 1850. He is a 
young man of thorough business habits, and has the 
confidence of all with whom he associates. In 1879, 
shortly after being naturalized, he was elected to 
the position of Public Administrator, a situation 
more responsible than profitable, which he fills with 
eminent ability and integrity. He has a beautiful 
residence in the town of Jackson, and evidently 
intends making the place his permanent home. 



ALEXANDER SHEAKLEY 

Was born at Sheakleyville, Mercer county, Penn- 
sylvania, May 1, 1827. In this town he spent his 
boyhood, and acquired the practical business educa- 
tion which has insured success in his many under- 
takings. In 1852 he followed the stream which set 
with so strong a current to the Golden State, arriving 
at Placerville, where he remained engaged in mining 
until September, 1853, when he came to lone City,then 
growing into notice in consequence of the rich lands 
in the valley, and its being on the line of travel 
from the mines to Sacramento. This place he made 
his permanent home, and materially aided to 
develop into its present prosperous condition. He 
has been engaged in many kinds of business. For the 
first ten years he carried on blacksmithing. Close 
attention to his trade impaired his health, and dis- 
posing of the business, he engaged in hotel keeping, 
becoming proprietor of the Arcade, then one of the 
finest hotels in the State. Since then he has been 
engaged in many things, always, however, retaining 
the ownership of the fine tract of land containing 
one hundred and eighty-four acres, which is his res- 
idence. This place is beautifully located, twenty to 
fifty feet above the valley, which sweeps in a circle 
around the elevation on which bis house is built. 
Sometimes twenty reapers can be seen cutting down the 
fields of golden grain, which alternate with orchard 
and vineyard. He has a fine residence, with all the 
modern improvements, which is a prominent object in 
whatever direction one may approach the valley. 
His place is underlaid by a vein of coal, which is 
likely to become valuable. Mr. Sheakley is one of 
the solid men of the county, always reliable. He 
was married, April 6, 1864, to Mrs. A. E. Mon- 
tandon. No children have blessed the union, to 
inherit and improve the fine property, though judg- 
ing from Mr. Sheakley's hearty appearance, he does 
not contemplate retiring from the care of it for 
many years to come. 






HISTORY OF AM M"'i: COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



.1 \ \i ES W. BHBALOR. 

The subjeoi of the following sketch is :i native of 
Virginia, having been born in Page county, August 
•i 1830 At the tender age of six years he removed 
wiili hi- parents to the State of Missouri, locating 
ai Springfield. The father of the presenl subjecl 
was ;i foundryman, and James followed thai busim 
after leaving Bchool, for some years. He also 
engaged in farming, and was a tiller of the soil when 
the western fever firsl laid bold of him. In 1853 lie 
moved with bis father and mother Id California, 
coming by way of the plains, ami experienced the 
trials usually attending such a trip in those early days. 

Ili> firsl location was at Volcano, Amador county, 
ami his business lor some years after reaching the 
Pacific coast was varied, lie being engaged in min- 
ing, teaming, ranching, milling, and other branches 
of industry. 

For tin' past seventeen years he has resided on his 
present ranch, situated six miles north-east from 
Volcano, lie has three hundred and twenty acres 
of fine land, and thoroughly understands the culti- 
vation thereof. On this ranch he has a saw-mill that 
was erected in 18G0, and which Mr. Shealor runs 
about six months in the year, manufacturing pine 
lumber for the people in his vicinity. 

He was married February 4, 1S53, to Miss Melinda 
Simms, of Missouri. Their union has been blessed 
with five children, four boys and one girl. 

The lather of our subject is still living, but his 
mother died December 23, 18G3. 



D. B. SPAGNOLI 



Is a native of Italy, having been born in the town of 
Rooegro, Province of Novara, November 30, 1840. 
He obtained his early education in the city of Pal- 
lanza. In 1852, he went to the French college at 
Vevey, remaining there until 1854, when, in company 
with his parents and one brother, he came to Califor- 
nia. The names of the family were Deodato Spag- 
noli and Maria Antoinette, father and mother, and 
s the two sons, Silvester and D. Benjamin. They 
reached San Francisco August 1, 1854, coming to 
Clinton, in Amador county, the following September. 
The elder Spagnoli mined near Clinton for several 
months and then bought a store and stock of goods, 
consisting of general merchandise. D. B., the sub- 
ject of this sketch, at the breaking out of the Frazer 
river excitement, went north with the crowd, and had 
about as exciting experience of the dangers of navi- 
gating the Frazer river and of traveling among 
the Indians, as any man that ever returned alive. 
An interesting book might have been'written on the 
subject, if book-making had been in his line of 
business. After his return in 1858, he followed stock- 
raising until the death of his father in 1863, when he 
took charge of his father's estate, consisting of store, 
mining interests and ditches, managing these until 



L865, when he was appointed Deputy Count}- Re- 
corder, occupying the position two years. In 1867 
he was appointed Deputy County Clerk. In 1869 
the offices of Clerk and Recorder were merged in one, 

and he received the nomination for the double office 
at the hands of the Democrats, and in September 
was elected, serving two years. At the expiration 
of his term of office he formed a law partnership with 
R. M. Briggs, having studied law and been admitted 
to the bar while County Clerk. Mr. Spagnoli has 
had a liberal education, speaking some four or five 
languages with fluency. He belonged to a wealthy 
and refined family in Italy, and started in life with 
many advantages, which he has notfailedto improve. 
He has had great influence among his countrymen, 
who would take his advice and trust their business 
to his care. He was married January 12, 1870, at 
Stockton, to Miss Rosa Isabella Bryant. In 1872 he 
returned to Italy on account of business, visiting 
London, Paris, Rome, Lyons, Milan, Turin and other 
cities of the Old World. After his return from 
Europe he became interested in the drug store at 
Jackson, finally becoming sole proprietor. 

His mother died in Amador county in 1873. He 
lost his wife in 1874, who left two sons (now living), 
two and three years of age, named respectively, Syl- 
vester Nelson D., and Urbono Giovani D. 



SYLVESTER G. SPAGNOLI 

Was born in the town of Rooegro, Italy; came to 
California in 1854 in company with his parents, Deo- 
dato and Maria Antoinette Spagnoli, and a brother, 
D. B. Spagnoli, now a resident of Jackson, and 
settled in Clinton, Amador county, in the month of 
September, 1854. In 1865 he went to Owyhee, in 
Idaho, on a mining excursion, returning the same 
year. On the location of his brother in Jackson in 
the Autumn of 1865, he took charge of the home 
business, consisting of merchandising, mining, and 
ditching, which he successfully managed. He was 
married November 23, 1868, to Miss Minnie V. Bry- 
ant, by whom he has had four children: Stella M. S., 
now eleven; Clotilde E. S., born in Clinton, and Min- 
nie R. S., aged three years, born in Harmon, county 
of Penobscot, State of Maine. 

Mr. Spagnoli enjoj r s the confidence and respect of 
the community, having held the position of Justice 
of the Peace three terms, once in 1876 by appoint- 
ment, and twice since by election. 



ROBERT STEWART 
Was born December 17, 1826, in Donegall county, 
Ireland, and emigrated to the United States, after 
reaching his majority, by way of New York. He 
soon after went to Freeport, Stephenson county, 
Illinois, where he was engaged in farming operations 
for eleven years. He started for California in com- 




BENJ" ROSS 



THOMPSON * WEST, Pue.OAKi.AHO, CAL 



BIOGRAPHICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE SKETCHES. 



321 



pany with Young and Johnson, March 19, 1850, and 
reached Placerville the 4th of September following, 
visiting the city of the saints while on his way. 
He tried mining at Placerville (then bearing the 
ominous name of Hangtown) for two weeks, and 
removed to Rancheria creek, but in a few days 
went to Volcano, which place he has, since October 
16, 1850, made his home. He early began to take 
part in politics, and, in 1859, was elected to the position 
of Supervisor from that distinct, serving two terms; 
was then appointed Deputy County Clerk, under 
T. M. Pawling, which position he held for two years. 
In 1873 he was again elected Supervisor, and re- 
elected again in 1876. When not engaged in his 
public duties he has been engaged in mining, placer 
and quartz, principally the latter, though during 
the years 1876-78-79, ,he connected banking and 
buying gold dust with his mining operations. He 
is still engaged in quartz mining, owning a mine and 
mill on north fork of the Mokelumne river. 

Ireland never gave birth to a more genuine, whole- 
souled man than the subject of this sketch. Whether 
in the mines or in the forum, as an officer adminis- 
tering the affairs of the county, or as a miner down 
in the earth hammering out quartz, his genuine 
Irish humor never left him. Though his education 
was rather limited, his native good sense and wit 
has always made him a fit companion for the highest 
as well as the unassuming. His solid and substantial 
qualities were appreciated by others than men, and 
July 2, 1876, Miss Celia Cottingham, the acknowl- 
edged belle of Volcano, consented to accompany him 
on the afternoon journey of his life, the silver threads 
contrasting finely with the gold. He has a well- 
stocked library of modern works, with which he 
employs himself in his leisure hours, and is, in con- 
sequence, in the front ranks of the thinking portion 
of the world. 



J. D. STOLCKEN 



Is a native of Germany, having been born at Han- 
over, September 7, 1838. He remained in his native 
country until he reached the age of about fifteen 
years, at which time he became interested in the 
"briny deep," and left the scenes of his childhood 
to become a sailor. His intelligence, and aptness 
for his new calling soon manifested themselves, and 
he was made an officer, and held the responsible 
position of mate on several ships during the fourteen 
years succeeding his first venture on the high seas. 
During that time he visited many parts of the world, 
and became familiar with the higher branches of 
the principles of navigation. In 1870 he came to 
California, desiring a change of occupation, and a 
more lucrative field for his labors. His first year 
in this State was passed in the mines of El Dorado 
county. He then came to Amador county, and 
located the Soto mine, at Pioneer creek, which he 

worked for nine years, finally selling the claim to 
41 



an Eastern company. Desiring a change once more, 
he, with the proceeds of the sale of his mine, bought 
property at Volcano, and also a large stock of such 
goods as is generally to be found in a variety store, 
in which business he is at present engaged. His 
store is well appointed, and conducted on the 
"square" principle; and his stock is complete, con- 
sisting of fancy goods and notions, also "wet and 
dry" groceries. Ho is a single man as yet. A view 
of the residence of Mr. Stolcken will be found in this 
volume. 



A. A. VAN SANDT, 
The subject of the following sketch, is a native of the 
old " Buckeye" State, Ohio ; was born in Hamilton 
county, April 22, 1832. His boyhood days were 
passed in that county until, in 1844, when he removed 
to Caldwell county, Missouri, where he acted in the 
capacity of plow-boy on the farm owned by his 
parents for some years. His facilities for obtaining 
an education were somewhat limited, but being a lad 
of more than ordinary ability he succeeded in obtain- 
ing a thorough knowledge of the branches taught in 
a district school. His next move was to Crawfords- 
ville, Indiana, where he remained until the year 1852. 
when he came to the Pacific coast, and entered the 
mines of California, engaging in mining, which busi- 
ness in connection with ditching he followed with 
varied success until 1868, at which time he settled on 
his present ranch, where he has since resided. As a 
farmer Mr. Van Sandt has proved a success, and is 
to-day the possessor of a fine, large ranch, containing 
six hundred acres, and adapted to the cultivation of 
every kind of grain, hay, and fruits. The ranch is 
situated on the Mokelumne river, and commands a 
beautiful view of the surrounding country. He was 
married in 1875 to Miss McCloucy, and their union 
has been blessed with two children, both boys, aged 
respectively four and one years. 

In the possession of his interesting family, and 
beautiful home, Mr. Van Sandt stands second to none 
of tbe many farmers along the river, and being in 
the prime of life bids fair to enjoy the fruits of his 
labors for many years to come. 



JAMES W. VIOLETT 
Was born in Logan county, Kentucky, July 1, 1828, 
residing there until 1849. He fell into the California 
column in 1850, making his way to Sacramento, 
where he followed the business of a carpenter until 
1853, when he came to lone valley, which place he 
has made his home, with some slight interruptions, 
ever since, engaged in farming, in some of its 
branches, in which he has generally been successful. 
In 1871 he purchased the famous Pardee orchard, 
one of the oldest as well as largest in the county. It 
contains one hundred and eight acres of, perhaps, as 
productive land as can be found in California. The 



322 



BISTORT? OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



fruit from this plaoe has always borne a bigh charac- 
ter. The writer of this article has seen 1 ch 

the Esohol or Palestine grape over two feet in 
length, growing <>n the place. Twenty-one acres arc 
now planted in choice fruit trees numbering over 
two thousand. 

Mr. Violett was married September 7, 1871, to Mrs. 
Martha Watkinson, formerly Miss Martha Gregory. 
They have six children. Mr. Violett is an honest, 
industrious, and intelligent man, having the confi- 
dence and respect of his neighbors, and is foremost in 
every work calculated to improve schools, churches 
or other beneficenl projects. 



JOHN VOGAN, 

Whose name frequently appears in the body of our 
history, was horn in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, 
May 7, 1822. lie early began to "go West," his 
first move being to Memphis, Tennessee. In 1849 he 
came to California, making his first halt at San 
Francisco, where he remained but a short time, his 
next destination being Sacramento. Here he engaged 
in staging, the business which afterwards developed 
into extensive proportions, having lines to Marys- 
ville, Auburn, Jackson, and Mokelumne Hill. In 
1854 he moved to the Q ranch, and in company with 
Charles Green still further extended its lines, one of 
the longest being a daily from Sacramento to Sonora, 
via Jackson and Mokelumne Hill, a distance of one- 
hundred and twenty miles. These lines were all 
well stocked, the horses and coaches being first-class. 
The Forest line of stages were well known for com- 
fort, speed and safety, thi*ough the State. Though 
the expenses were enormous, so were the profits, the 
fare from Sonora to Sacramento being twenty dol- 
lars; from Jackson ten dollars. The lines were 
afterward consolidated with the California Staee 
Company, which proved a losing concern. After the 
staging business had ceased to be profitable, Vo°-an 
commenced the construction of a graded wa"-on 
road from lone to Jackson. An experience of ten 
or twelve years in staging over the rough roads, or 
rather over no roads at all, enabled him not only to 
appreciate the value of good roads, but also to plan 
the grades and curves that would make a good road. 
It was finished about the year 1863, and was, and 
still remains, a monument of skill and perseverance, 
being one of the best roads considering the circum- 
stances, to be found in California. 

He was elected Sheriff in 1876, and re-elected every 
term since. 

He was married July 19, I860, to Miss Lucy 
Green, at the Q ranch. They have six children, five 
girls and one boy. He has a beautiful home and 
twelve hundred acres of land at the well-known 
Mountain Springs. 

Mr. Vogan is liberal in his sentiments, genial and 
pleasant in manner, with no disagreeable angles in 



his character, and is always reliable for a first-class 
anecdote of any and every prominent man of the 
country, in his business operations he is a square 
dealer, above reproach. As an executive officer he 
has exceeded the expectations of his friends, making 
one of the best detectives in the State, his quiet, 
undemonstrative manner enabling him to ferret out 
many transactions which would be successfully hid- 
den from a noisy man. 



RICHARD WEBB 
Is a native of England, born about the year 1841; 
was naturalized in San Francisco in 1876, and made 
his appearance in Amador county the same year, as 
editor of a semi-weekly paper published at Sutter 
Creek, which was soon consolidated with the Ledyer 
at Jackson, he becoming sole proprietor. Soon after 
removing to Jackson he married a daughter of 
Thomas Jones, Esquire, of the same place, thus com- 
pleting his identification with American interests. 
His career as an editor has been more fully referred 
to in connection with the newspapers of Amador 
county. It may be added, however, that he has 
paid particular attention to the administration of 
county affairs, and has unearthed many irregulari- 
ties (a severer term might be used), and has in many 
ways assisted in bringing about the present econom- 
ical management of financial matters. No crooked 
official bears any good-will to Richard Webb. 



CONRAD WELLER 
Was born in the town of Helmstadt, in Germany, 
December 14, 1832, living there until he was sixteen 
years old, acquiring a good business education at the 
schools for which Germany is so famous. Following 
the tide of emigration, which was then beginning to 
set heavily towards America, in company with an 
elder brother, he landed in New Orleans in 1849, 
going directly to St. Louis, where he completed the 
trade of tinning and sheet-iron working, which he 
had partially learned in Germany. From thence he 
went to Belleville, Illinois, where his brother resided, 
remaining there until 1853, when he crossed the 
plains to California. He first located in Sacramento, 
working at his trade, but finally came to Jackson 
October 24, 1855, and three days afterwards opened 
the store which he has since occupied, except when 
interrupted by fires, the great fire of 1862 totally 
destroying his goods and store. In addition to the 
manufacture of tin and sheet-iron ware, he has 
always kept on hand the best stock of stoves and 
other hardware to be found in the county. 

He was married in 1861, to Miss Katie Griesbach, 
of Volcano; have one child, a son, born August 3, 
1862. 

Mrs. Weller was born in Munich, March 3, 1845, of 
Jacob and Catherine Griesbach. 



BIOGRAPHICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE SKETCHES. 



323 



Mr. Weller and wife ai*e good samples of the emi- 
gration from Germany, who, by honest, persistent 
industry which, satisfied with a fair prosperity, move 
straight along without grumbling to competence and 
wealth, and who have done so much to develop the 
resources of the country, and establish the habits of 
life so invaluable to a nation. 



MATTHEW H. WELLS 

Was born May 9, 1809, in Suffolk county, Long 
Island, and is, therefore, a New Yorker. He resided 
on the romantic island until he was seventeen, 
obtaining a practical business education while there. 
His next residence was in New York City, where he 
was engaged in an extensive gTOcery store for three 
years. The desire to see the world being strong, he 
enlisted in the service, going on the United States 
ship Boston, where he remained four and a half 
years. The next thirteen years were spent in New 
York City in various kinds of business. Upon the 
breaking out of the gold fever he took passage in the 
brig Cordelia, leaving New York January 30, 1849, 
reaching San Francisco July 15th, which, considering 
the character of the vessel and ignorance of the 
winds and currents in those days, was a remarkably 
quick trip. He followed mining for a short time, 
bat soon engaged in butchering in Sacramento, which 
he followed for some months. Then he tried a 
boarding-house for awhile, and then a store, for in 
those days lawyers sold peanuts and blacked boots, 
and ministers occasionally dealt monte, no one fol- 
lowing his own trade, or indeed any one, long. In 
1852 he came to Amador creek, where he kept a 
store for eleven years, falling into the steady habits 
of the New England life. In 1863 he located on the 
ranch where he now lives, about forty miles east of 
Sacramento, on the road to Jackson, Plymouth 
and Oleta. He has large and commodious buildings, 
making a comfortable residence for both man and 
beast. His farm contains about seven hundred 
acres of land. 

He was married in 1838 to Miss H. M. Watts, who 
lived with him, as companion and adviser, for forty- 
two years, dying in June, 1880. A married daughter, 
husband and family reside with him, sharing the 
ownership and labors of the farm. 



ISAAC W. WHITACRE 
Is a native of Pennsylvania, having been born April 
16, 1823, in Lycoming county. At the age of nine 
years he removed with his parents to Logan county, 
Ohio, where he resided until he was fourteen years 
of age. In 1837 the family returned to Pennsylva- 
nia, where they remained two years, when they again 
made a move west, this time going to Washington 
county, Iowa, where the subject of this sketch resi- 
ded until 1853, when he made his way to California 
with ox-teams, being one hundred and seventy-five days 



on the road. They doubtless wondered if a railway 
would ever be laid down over the interminable ter- 
ritory of sage-brush and alkali plains ? He first 
located in Nevada county, remaining there one year, 
engaged in mining ; from there to Fresno county, 
where he lived five years, engaged in teaming and 
freighting. In 1858 he removed from Fresno to 
Amador county, locating on his present ranch, about 
two and one-half miles from Plymouth, on the road 
to Oleta. The place contains two hundred acres of 
land, which is pleasantly situated and convenient for 
business. He was married in 1844 to Rachel Sim- 
mons, a native of Ohio. The family consists of Mr. 
Whitacre, wife and two children, a son and daughter, 
the latter being married, the son residing with the 
parents. 

STEPHEN C. WHEELER 

Is a native of Indiana, having been born November 
14, 1828, at the town of Seymour, Jackson county, 
where he resided until 1852, when he migrated to 
California, traveling across the plains with an ox- 
team, reaching Amador county, September 30th, set- 
tling in that portion of it which at that time formed 
a part of El Dorado county. He followed mining- 
some fifteen years with varied success, making, how- 
ever, no big strikes. His experience in a gold-bear- 
ing lava bed was more interesting than profitable, 
interesting to mineralogists at least, as throwing 
some light on the method of the superficial deposit 
of gold. Most of his mining was done in Amador 
county, his family, during the time, living on the 
ranch which he is now cultivating, about two miles 
west of Plymouth. Since 1867 Mr. Wheeler has 
paid more attention to agriculture as more sure, if 
not so brilliant in its results, than mining. 

He is also interested, with another party, in the 
introduction of the " Asbestine Sub-irrigation Pipe," 
which, it is thought, will be generally adopted, and 
work a great revolution in the method of irrigation, 
as agriculture, in many places, depends upon an 
economical use of water. 

He was married February 21, 1850, to Miss Mary 
E. Thompson, a native of Indiana. His family con- 
sists of himself, wife and ten children, five sons and 
five daughters, two of the daughters being married. 



F. M. WHITMORE. 

Flint Monroe Whitmore was born at Ashburnham, 
Massachusetts, December 22, 1822. He remained 
in his native State until 1845, when he moved to 
Baltimore, which place he made his home until 1849, 
when he returned to Massachusetts, making his home 
in Boston. Following the current of emigration he 
embarked for California via the Isthmus, and arrived 
in San Francisco in June, 1850, reaching Volcano in 
November following, which latter place he has since 
made his home. Mr. Whitmore engaged in both 



324 



HISTORY OF AMADOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



placer and quartz mining mtb varied success, some- 
times winning moderately, bul aol making himself 
a millionaire. In 1862, he engaged in farming a i'cw 
miles above Volcano, planting <>m quite an extensive 
orchard; the climate, soil, and elevation, being pecu- 
liarly adapted to the production of fruit. Stock und 
grain farming also received a share of bis attention. 
In [862, be purchased a sawmill and a tract of 
timber land on Antelope creek, winch have since 
demanded the largest share of his attention. The 
region in which he is located is one possessing many 
attractions to the lovers of nature. The lofty pines, 
the magnificenl prospect overlooking the great Sac- 
ramento valley, the pure atmosphere, ami cool water. 
form a combination of pleasing objects which never 
tires the beholder. Thongh Mr. Whitmore has drawn 
around him many of the comforts and elegancies of 
life, he remains a single man, a niece, Mrs. C. E. 
Heath, doing the honors of his house. As a citizen, 
Mr. Whitmore is conscientious, firm, and inde- 
pendent, possessing the confidence and respect of 
the community, always maintaining the self-respect 
and honor, characteristic of his place of birth. A 
view of his mill and surroundings is given in another 
part of the work. No artist can do justice to the 
scenery, which must be seen to be appreciated. His 
ranch contains three hundred and twenty acres of 
land; his timber tract, one hundred and sixty. 



N. C. WILLIAMS 
Is a native of the State of Maine, having been born 
at Embden, Somerset county, January 20, 1834. His 
life was passed in the town where he first saw the 
light, until he reached the age of sixteen years. He 
had acquired a good education during these years, 
and in 1830 left home and obtained a situation in the 
city of Boston, Massachusetts, where he remained 
about three years as clerk in a ship yard. 

As youth ripened into manhood, he aspired to 
something different from the old routine to which he 
was accustomed, and fired with enthusiam.from the 
reports of people on the Pacific coast, he determined 
to ascertain personally what Dame Fortune had in 
store for him in that region; accordingly with the 
thought came the action, and in 1855 he bade fare- 
well to his eastern friends and sought new ones in 
California, arriving in San Francisco in due time, by 
way of the Isthmus of Panama. 

His first permanent location was in Amador county, 
where he has since resided, with the exception of 
one year, during which he visited his old home in the 
States. His occupation for the first ten years of his 
California life, was in the usual vocation of mining; 
but upon his return from the States he engaged 
in various kinds of business. 

In 1871 he settled on his present ranch, which is 
located on the Pine Grove and Antelope toll-road, 
fourteen miles east of Jackson. He is very pleas- 
antly situated, and is a gentleman esteemed by all 



who have the honor of his acquaintance. He was 
married May 13, 1874, to Miss Rosella VVorley. 



JOSEPH WOOLFOED 
Was born at Eamsburc, Wiltshire, in England, Feb- 
ruary 7, 1832, where he resided until 1858, when he 
went to Peru, in South America, by way of Cape 
Horn, where ho resided for four years. After this 
he came to California and lived at the place then 
called "Puckerville," about a half mile to the west 
of the town of Plymouth. 

Mr. Woolford is a blacksmith by trade, having fol- 
lowed it most of his life, being at present in the em- 
ploy of the Pacific Mining Company, though he has 
at other times been employed by the Empire Mining 
Company. He is a first-class mechanic, and has sug- 
gested and perfected many improvements in tools 
and machinery. Among other things he has invented 
a ratchet wrench which works equally well on round 
as on square heads, for which he has obtained a 
patent. 

He is a single man, living with his brother, who 
occupies his ranch. His experiences in the mines 
and in South America, make an interesting narrative 
when he can be induced to speak of them. 



D. YOUNGLOYE 
Was born July 13, 1833, at Great Barrington, Berk- 
shire county, Massachusetts, where he spent his 
boyhood and acquired his education. In 1851, he 
removed to Waushara county, Wisconsin, where he 
engaged in farming until 1864, when he sought the 
Golden State. Here he encased in freitjhtin^ from 
Sacramento to the different mining towns of Ama- 
dor, making his home at first north of Yolcano. He 
followed this business until 1875, when he purchased 
the highly improved Edward's property, for about 
ten thousand dollars, which place he has since made 
his home. This place contains two hundred and 
thirty-three acres. of lone valley land, than which 
nothing better can be said. The orchards, buildings, 
and approaches, are laid out in European style, with 
drives and graveled walks, bordered with flowers 
and fragrant herbs. It was for many years, and 
probably is now, the most artistically improved place 
in the county. The coal vein underlies a large por- 
tion of the place. The Gait & lone railroad passes 
through the southern side of the place, the depot 
being but a few hundred feet from his land, thus 
affording ample market facilities for coal, or the 
produce of the farm. The vein of coal is from three 
to fifteen feet in thickness, lying nearly on a level 
with the valley in the adjoining hills. The cost of 
mining is less than one dollar per ton. The coal 
burns freely, and is used for domestic purposes, and 
also as a steam coal, being worth per ton about the 
same as a cord of wood. The orchard contains 
about sixteen hundred trees, bearing choice fruit. 




V 









»i* 



p 



j. F PARKS 



ON a, WEST, PUB. DAIUANO, CAU 



■±SAG&L=*^±_ 



CHRONOLOGICAL. 



1513. 
Discovery of the Pacific ocean by Balboa. 

1518. 
Invasion of Mexico by Cortez. 

1519. 
First Navigation of the Pacific by Magellan. 

1534 
Discovery of Lower California by Cortez. 

1535. 
Further Exploration of the California gulf. 

1537. 
Explorations on the Western coast by Ulloa. 

1542. 
* Expedition of Cabrillo. Cape Mendocino discovered.* 

1554. 
Death of Cortez. 

1577. 
Sir Francis Drake's discoveries. 

1579. 
California taken possession of by Sir Francis Drake 
in the name of Queen Elizabeth. 

1596. 
Viscaino takes possession of Lower California. 

1602. 
San Diego harbor discovered by Yiscaifio. 

1683. 
First attempt to colonize Lower California at La Paz 
by Admiral Otondo and Friar Kiihn. 

1697. 
October 25. The first Jesuit Mission established at 
Loreto, in Lower California, by Father Salvatierra. 

1700. 
The second Jesuit Mission established at San Xavier, 

Lower California, by Father IJgarte. 
First Expedition into the Interior by Father Kino. 

1720. 
Expedition of Father Ugarte to the river Colorado. 

1766. 
Expeditions of Father Wincestus Link. 

1767. 
The Jesuits expelled from Lower California, and the 
Franciscans installed. 

1768. 
Gaspar de Portala appointed Governor of Californias, 
and Francis Junipero Serra, Missionary President. 

1769. 
Expeditions dispatched by land and water into Upper 

California. 
July 16. San Diego Mission founded. 

1770. 
June 3. Monterey Mission founded. 

1771. 
July 14. San Antonio Mission founded. 



September 8. San Gabriel Mission founded. 
Eeinforcements and supplies arrive at San Diego. 

1772. 
September 1. San Luis Obispo Mission founded. 
Father Serra returned from Mexico with reinforce- 
ments and supplies. 

1775. 
Expedition of Friar Garzes through the upper terri- 
tory. 
November 4. San Diego attacked by Indians. 

1776. 
June. San Diego Mission repaired. 
October 9. San Francisco (Dolores) Mission founded. 
November 1. San Juan Capistrano Mission founded. 

1777. 
January 18. Mission of Santa Clara founded. 

1781. 
September 4. Pueblo de Los Angeles established. 

1782. 
March 31. San Buena Ventura Mission founded. 

1784. 
Los Nietos tract granted to Manuel Nieto. 
October 20. San Eafael tract granted to Jose Maria 
Verdugo. 

1786. 
December 4. Santa Barbara Mission founded. 

1787. 
December 8. La Purissima Conception Mission 
founded. 

1791. 
August 28. Santa Cruz Mission founded. 
October 9. La Soledad Mission founded. 

1797. 
June 11. San Jose Mission founded. 
June 24. San Juan Bautista Mission founded. 
July 25. San Miguel Mission founded. 
September 8. San Fernando Mission founded. 

1798. 
June 13. Mission of San Luis Key de Francia founded. 

1802. 
Humboldt visits California. 

1804. 
September 17. Mission of Santa Inez founded. 

1810. 
Santiago de Santa Ana tract granted Antonio Yorba 

1812. 
December 8. Mission of San Juan Capistrano de- 
stroyed by earthquake. 
December 21. Church of La Purissima destroyed by 
earthquake. 

1815. 
W. Whittle claims to have arrived in Los Angeles, 
being the first English-speaking settler in California. 






826 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 






1818. 
Bonohard'a privateer attacked the coast towns. 
Joseph Chapman and Thomas Fisher captured and 
taken to Los Angeles. 

1819. 
December 14. San Rafael Mission founded. 

1822. 
Mexican independence established. 
Captain John Hall, of the British Navy, examined 
and reported on the Pacific coast harbors. 

1824. 
Santiago McKinley settled in Los Angeles. 
First Act of the Mexican Government toward secu- 
larization of the missions passed. 

1825. 
Jedediah S. Smith entered California overland. 

1826. 
Manumission of the Indians declared. 

1827. 
First Mexican school established. 

Great drought. 

1828. 

Jesse Ferguson, Richard Laughlin, N. M. Pryor, 

Abel Stearns, and Louis Bouchette, settled in Los 

Angeles. Continued drought. 

1829. 

Michael White and John Domingo, settled in Los 

Angeles. 

1831. 
Manuel Yictoria became Governor. 
J. J. Warner, William Wolfskill, Luis Yignes, Joseph 
Bowman, John Rhea, and William Day, settled in 
Los Angeles. 
The schooner Refugio built at San Pedro. 

1833. 
Death of Padre Sanchez. 

1834. 
August 9. Complete secularization of the missions 

decreed. 
Hijar's expedition. 
Destruction of the mission property. 
Luis Yignes plants the first orange orchard in Los 

Angeles. 
First soap factory established. 

1835. 
Hijar's insurrection. Death of Governor Figueroa. 
R. H. Dana visits California. 

Henry Melius and Hugo Reid settle in Los Angeles. 
The first lynching. 

1836. 
Census taken. 

Graham's insurrection. 

Los Angeles erected into a city. 

1838. 
Arrest of suspected persons. 
Second Mexican school established in Los Angeles. 

1840. 
Isaac Graham and companions arrested and sent to 

Mexico. 
May 18. Grant of Arroyo Seco made to Theodosia 

Yorba, by Juan B. Alvarado. 



1841. 
United States exploring expedition examined the 
California coast. 

1842. 
Micheltorena Governor. 
October 19. Seizure of Monterey by United States 

Commodore Jones. 
October 20. Its restoration. 
Discovery of gold in Los Angeles county. 

1843. 
January 18. Commodore Jones visits Governor 
Micheltorena at Los Angeles. 

1844. 
Great drought. 
Lancasterian school established in Los Angeles. 

1845. 

Continued drought. 

February 21. Battle at Cahuenga between Michel- 
torena and Alvarado. A mule killed. 
1846. 

March. Arrival of Fremont and exploring party. 

Sutter sawed lumber on the divide between Sutter 
and Amador. 

April. The Donner party start for California. 

May 11. War with Mexico declared by Congress. 

June 11. First act of hostility by Fremont's party. 

June 15. The Bear flag hoisted. 

July 7. Monterey captured by Commodore Sloat. 

July 8. Yerba Buena captured. 

July 27. Fremont's battalion sent to San Diego. 

July 28. Rev. Walter Colton appointed alcalde of 
Monterey. 

July 29. Commodore Sloat sailed for the East. 

August 1. Stockton sails for San Pedro. 

August 4. Stockton captures Santa Barbara. 

August 6. Stockton arrives at San Pedro. 

August 15. Los Angeles City occupied by Stockton. 

August 15. The Californian issued, by Semple and 
Colton, at Monterey. 

September 4. First jury trial in California at Mon- 
terey. 

September 23. Flores' insurrection against Gillespie. 

Gillespie surrenders, and embarks at San Pedro. 

B. D. Wilson's party captured by Yarelas. 

October 7. Captain Mervine landed at San Pedro, 

and was defeated. 

1847. 

January 8. Battle of the Rio San Gabriel. 
" 9. Battle of the Mesa. 

" 10. Los Angeles re-occupied by Commodore 
Stockton . 
January 11. Proclamation by Stockton. 

" 12. Treaty of peace agreed upon between 
General John C. Fremont and General Andres 
Pico at Cahuenga. 
March 1. Stephen W. Kearney recognized as Gov- 
ernor. 
April. Semi-monthly mails established between San 

Francisco and San Diego. 
May 31. Richard B. Mason became Governor. 



CHRONOLOGICAL. 



327 



1848. 

January 19. Discovery of gold at Coloma. 

February 2. Treaty of peace signed at Guadalupe 

Hidalgo. 

1849. 

January 4. Alta California newspaper established in 
San Francisco. 

February 7. First Pacific Eailroad bill introduced in 
Congress. 

February 28. Steamer California reached San Fran- 
cisco. 

April 13. General Bennett Eiley became Governor. 

June 3. Governor Riley issued proclamation for a 
Convention at Monterey. 

October 13. Constitution signed. 

November 13. Constitution ratified by the people. 

December 15. First Legislature convened at San 
Jose. 

December 20. Governor Peter H. Burnett inaug- 
urated. 

1850. 

February 18. State divided into twenty-seven coun- 
ties. Calaveras county organized. 

County seat captured at Double Spring and moved 
to Jackson. 

April 9, State Library founded. 

May 4. Second great fire in San Francisco. 

June 3. Third great fire in San Francisco. 

Celebration of the Fourth at Jackson, McDowell 
delivering an oration. 

Colonel Collyer shot by Judge Smith. 

September 9. California admitted into the Union. 

September 17. Fourth great fire in San Francisco. 
1851. 

Second Legislature convened at San Jose. 

February 14. Act approved removing capital to 
Yallejo. 

The Irving party massacred by the Cahuilla Indians. 

Gregory's Atlantic and Pacific Express established. 

November 12. Attempt to assassinate Benjamin 
Hayes. 

September 9. Grand Division Sons of Temperance 
organized. 

1852. 

January 2. United States Land Commission met at 
San Francisco. 

January 5. Third session of Legislature at Vallejo. 

September. Riot at Jamison's ranch, four Mexicans 
being whipped. Arrest of Jamison and son by 
posse comitatus from El Dorado. 

County seat removed to Mokelumne Hill. 

August. Whitehead murdered near Butler's, on the 

' road between Plymouth and Drytown. 

August 4. Sacramento Valley Railroad Company 
organized. 

November 1. Claim four hundred and forty-one, for 
Arroyo Seco, filed with Land Commissioners. 
1853. 

January 3. Fourth session of the Legislature met 
at Yallejo. 



February 4. State Capital removed to Benicia. 

Tejon Indian reservation established. 

June. A man named Smith died from the effects of 

a rattlesnake bite near Fiddletown. 
— Portor, superintendent of the Willow Spring ditch, 

murdered near the race-track, probably by Dutch 

Chris, and Harry Fox, who murdered Beckman at 

Volcano about the same time. 
August. Eureka Hotel burned at Volcano. 
November. A gambler, named Baldwin, shot and 

killed by another of the same profession, named 

Whitney. 
Doctor Beck killed Norton at Lancha Plana. 
Death of Joaquin Murietta. 
December. H. A. Carter and E. B. Harris, citizens 

of lone, learned the existence of the claim called 

the "Arroyo Seco," while at Benicia, the then 

capital. 

1854. 

January 1. California Stage Company began opera- 
tions. 

January 2. Legislature convened at Benecia. 

February 25. State Capital removed to Sacramento. 

March 1. California Steam Navigation Company 
organized. 

March 23. Hanging of the Swede at Jackson. 

April 4. Fire at Jackson, loss twenty-eight thousand 
five hundred dollars. 

May 13. Act approved establishing a State Agricul- 
tural Society. 

June 17. Election to determine whether the county 
of Amador should be formed out of a part of Cal- 
averas. 

July 3. Commissioners appointed by Legislature 
met to call election for county officers of the new 
county. 

July 17. First county officers elected. 

August 3. G. F. Elliot killed in a difficulty by C. Y. 
Hammond. 

September 10. First Court of Sessions. 

September 11. J. K. Payne allowed twelve dollars 
and fifty cents for services in building a school- 
house at Grass Valley. 

E. P. Hunter killed at Lancha Plana by John Chap- 
man. 

October 4. First State Fair held at San Francisco. 

October. Joseph H. Antonio, Francis Munioz, sub- 
jects of Coroner's investigations. 

George Simmons on trial for manslaughter. 

November 9. Sacramento Valley Railroad Company 
re-organized. 

November. Messer hung by a mob at Volcano, for 
the murder of McAllister. 
1855. 

January 1. First financial report of Amador county. 
$10,532.50 in treasury, which on May 4th amounted 
to $16,649.59; outstanding orders, $7,972.84, leav- 
ing a net of $8,876.75. 

February 27. Claim four hundred and forty-one, for 



»28 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 






Arroyo Seeo grant, njoeted by Land Commis- 
sioner. 

May .">. Win. M . Seawoll and J. T. King aro 
appointed Justices of the Peace. 

May 8. Townships No. 5 and G organized. 
18.-).-.. 

May '.». E. B. Yates appointed Justice of the Peace 
for Township No. G. 

May 15. William M. Scawoll, Justice of the Peace, 
resigned, and F. G. Hoard appointed in his place. 

May 1G. Four dollars road tax assessed on persons 
between twenty-one and fifty. 

May 19. Board of Supervisors allowed J. C. Ship- 
man five hundred dollars for acting as County 
Auditor, which he declined taking, deeming it in- 
sufficient. 

June 21. Supervisors ordered the building of a 
county jail, costing four thousand two hundred and 
eighty dollars; Craft & Beale, contractors. 

August 6. Killing of six persons at Lower Ranch- 
eria by banditti. 

August 7. Hanging of three Mexicans at the same 
place. 

General disarming of the Mexicans. 

August 12. Death of Sheriff Phoenix at Chinese 
Camp. 

Burning of the church and other houses at Drytown. 

Samuel A. Phoenix appointed Sheriff, in place of W. 
A. Phoenix, deceased. 

Hanging at Jackson of three Mexicans concerned in 
Rancheria tragedy — day uncertain. 

Manuel Escobar was the last of the party hanged ; 
he was also the last executed on the famous tree. 

Supervisor Districts established. 

August 24. First railroad train in California placed 
on the track of Sacramento Yalley Railroad. 

September. Board of Supervisors organized. 

October 27. Amador Ledger commenced at Yolcano. 

November 15. J. C. Shipman allowed three hun- 
dred and fifty-two dollars and fifty cents for 
making out assessment roll and tax list. 

December 21. Three professional robbers, camping 
about three miles below Jackson, were attacked 
by Sheriff Thorn, of Calaveras, detective Hume, 
and J. W. Surface of lone, two being captured. 
A large amount of burglars' tools found in the 
camp. 

1854 and 1855. 

Legislature set off territory of El Dorado as part of 
the county of Amador. 

1856. 

January 8. killed by Cottrell, at Yolcano. 

March. Survey of Arroyo Seco Grant. 

April 6. Cottrell re-arrested at Placerville and 
placed in Amador jail ; eventually tried and ex- 
ecuted. 

May 16. Vigilance Committee formed in San Fran- 
cisco. 

May 22. Casey and Cora hung by Yigilance Com- 
mittee in San Francisco. 



Juno 3. Governor Johnson issued a proclamation 
calling out the State militia to suppress Vigilantes. 

Juno 21. Arrest of Judge David S. Terry by Yigi- 
lance Committee of San Francisco. 

July 29. Hetherington and Brace hung by Yigilance 
Committee in San Francisco. 

October 5. D. L. Wells, of the Gate, thrown from 
his carriage while riding down the grade between 
Mokelumne Hill and the river and killed. 

October 6. Death of Thomas Hodges, alias Tom 
Bell, the noted highwayman. 
1857. 

June 15. First stage on the wagon road, completed 
round trip, Placerville to Carson Yalley. 

September 18. Death of Chief Justice Hugh Murray. 

September 29. State Fair held at Stockton. 

November 7. M. V. B. Griswold murdered by China- 
men. 

November. Difficulty near Yolcano in which two 
men were killed by Stevenson, who was tried and 
executed. 

1858. 

April 16. Three Chinamen hung at Jackson for 
the murder of M. Y. B. Griswold. 

July 23. First overland mail via Placerville and Salt 
Lake left Sacramento. 

Frazer River excitement. 

1859. 

Discovery of the Comstock Ledge. 

August. Survey made by Mandeville, locating Ar- 
royo Seco ten miles further west. 

September 13. State Fair held at Sacramento. 

September 14. Terry and Broderick duel, San 
Mateo county; Broderick mortally wounded. 

November. Large fire in Volcano, burning St. 

George Hotel and twenty-five other buildings. 

1860. 

April 26. Judge McAllister decided that the Arroyo 
Seco Grant should be located west of the Lyons 
and Martin mountains. 

April. Pony express established, and first mes- 
senger left Sacramento. 

May 12. Massacre of the Ormsby party near Pyra- 
mid lake. 

Septgmber. Death of the Indian chief Captain 
Truckee. 

1861. 

January 13. State Agricultural Society decided to 

make Sacramento a permanent location. 
Instrumental survey of the route for the Central 

Pacific railroad over the Sierras made during this 

year. 
February 16. Meeting in Volcano regarding the 

building of a wagon road to Nevada. 
February 19. Joseph Worthy killed by a slide of 

earth at Irishtown. 
February 23. Meeting in Jackson regarding the 

building of a wagon road to Nevada. 
May 15. Corner-stone of State House laid. 



CHRONOLOGICAL. 



329 



June 28. Articles of incorporation of Central Pacific 
Railroad of California filed with the Secretary of 
State. 

1862. 

January 23. Legislature adjourned to San Fran- 
cisco on account of flood. 

July 1. Pacific Railroad Act approved by President. 

August 8 and 9. First fair held in Amador county. 

August 8 and 9. First bale of hops raised in Amador 
county on exhibition at the county fair by J. D. 
Mason. 

August 23. Fire at Jackson, destroying the town. 

Hanging-tree at Jackson cut down. 

August. Mandeville's survey, on appeal from Dis- 
trict Court, confirmed by Judge Hoffman. 

October. Fire at Yolcano destroying the St. George 
Hotel and other property. 

November 4. Earthquake shock felt at Tarr's Mill. 

November 14. Fitzgerald killed by the caving of a 
bank at Lancha Plana. 

Noyember 18. William Golman found dead near his 
residence; cause of death heart disease. 

December 13. Western Pacific Railroad Company 
incorporated. 

1863. 

January 8. Ground broken for the Central Pacific 

railroad at Sacramento. 
January 20. Beeson's store entered by masked men. 

Beeson " bucked and gagged," and then robbed; 

names of robbers unknown. 
February 3. Appeal to United States Supreme 

Court from the decision of Judge Hoffman in the 

matter of locating the survey of the Arroyo Seco 

Grant dismissed without a hearing. 
February 9. Jerry Conley killed at Lancha Plana 

by the caving of a bank of gravel. 
February 11. Harry Hatch, long known in Ama- 
dor county, died at the residence of D. C. White. 
February 22. Construction of the Central Pacific 

railroad commenced. 
Act approved by Governor granting ten thousand 

dollars per mile to the Central Pacific railroad. 
April 25. A colored boy, aged eighteen, iatally 

stabbed his father. 
May. Capp killed on his claim at Pokerville by A. 

Moore. 
June 2. J. S. Porter appointed Justice of the Peace 

for Township No. 4., vice H. Wood, resigned. 
June 5. Conny Mahoney fatally stabbed by Jack 

Willson. 
July 7. Precinct established at Copper Center. 
July 7. Precinct established at Elliott's Ranch. 
July 14. James H. Allen drowned in Sacramento 

river. 
July 20. House of Edward Dosh, lone valley, de- 
stroyed by fire ; loss, two thousand five hundred 

dollars. 
July 21. Philip Morgan fell two hundred feet in a 

shaft of the Eureka mine, killing him instantly. 
42 



August 8. The Amador wagon road opened to the 
public. 

August 17. Fernandino Belliuomini killed at French 
Bar by the falling of a timber. 

September 7. Three prisoners escaped from the jail 
by making a hole through the brick walls. 

September. Child of Sylvester Rogers, near Willow 
Spring creek, crushed by the displacement and 
rolling of a rock. 

October. A. F. Northrup exhibited an apple weigh- 
ing thirty and one-half ounces, of the Glori Mundi 
variety. 

November 4. Frederick Fernsner, of Drytown, com- 
mitted suicide by shooting himself. 

November 14. Charles K. Williams killed by a fall 
in the shaft of the Plymouth mine. 

November 15. A heavy wind blew down a tree on 
the house of B. Henderson, near Yolcano, fatally 
injuring him. 

November 17. Stage stopped and express robbed of 
two thousand dollars between Fiddletown and 
Drytown. 

December 16. Peter McCabe died from injuries 
received by being thrown from a wagon. 

December 31. Two teamsters robbed of five hun- 
dred dollars by highwaymen on the Carson grade. 

Three cases for murder came before the District 
Court. 

Thomas Hodge found dead in Cook's Gulch. No clue 
to the murderer. 

Thieves were plentiful around Jackson. 

Nevada City destroyed by fire. Loss, five hundred 
and fifty thousand dollars. 

1864. 

February 13. Samuel's store in Jackson robbed of 

cash and clothing amounting to seven hundred 

dollars. 
February 21. David Armstrong died at Gold Hill, 

Nevada Territory. 
February 24. The dwelling of George Clark, in 

New York Gulch, destroyed by fire; loss, three 

thousand dollars. 
April 6. J. R. Blackwell and Sturtevant, near 

Yeomet, got into an altercation in which the first 

was killed and the latter severely wounded; cause, 

a woman. 
April 14. Chestnut's building and Crosson's saloon, 

Oleta, destroyed by fire. Mr. Ford, jeweler, lost 

his tools and a portion of his stock. 
June 13. The wire suspension bridge over the 

Mokelumne river, between Mokelumne Hill and 

"West Point, fell with sixty head of cattle, all of 

which were killed. The bridge was about -fifty 

feet high. 
August 20. Child of Mrs. Lewis, near Newton 

mine, burned to death by clothes taking fire. 
September. Rattlesnake killed near Middle fork, 

Jackson Creek, measuring eight feet and three 

inches in length, thirteen rattles. 



330 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



18G4. 

Ootober 26. Writs of ejeotmenl at the instance of 
Benjamin Bellocb issued against William Atkin- 
Bon, J. 0. I'iiliian. Thomas Rickey, and others, 
\>\ J ndge Field. 

November 22. E3. II. Chase and B. Rickey died at 
lone City, as was believed, from small-pox. 

November. An elderly man by the name of Mer- 
chant killed by Michael Doonan. 
1865. 

January 6. Daniel Kerrigan was crushed to death 
in the Oneida mine, near Jackson. 

January 8. C. N. W. Ilinkson, Drytown, killed in 
a difficulty*with his son-in-law, a Mr. Hadsell. 

February 11. Captain Starr, with seventy-five sol- 
diers, come into lone valley to dispossess the 
settlers. 

Februaiy 17. J. C. Fithian, William Scully, Charles 
Black, Samuel Deardorff, and others, ejected from 
their homes in Jackson valley, by Cajitain Starr 
and a company of United States troops, acting 
under the directions of Herman Wohler. 

February 19. Herman AVobler shot at lone. 

March 6. Second body of soldiers enter lone valley, 
making total number three hundred. 

April 23. John Gaver arrested by Captain Starr for 
"exulting over the assassination of Lincoln." 

May 5. Fire in Volcano. Loss, twenty thousand 
dollars. 

May 8. L. P. Hall and W. M. Penry arrested by 
Captain Starr of Company D, United States Cav- 
alry, and conveyed to Fort Alcatraz. 

June 6. Chinaman shot by an Indian at Sutter 
creek, for refusing to clean up his sluices for the 
Indian's benefit. 

June 11. Fire in Amador City, destroying several 
buildings. 

June 18. Herbertville quartz mill, near Amador, 
totally destroyed by fire. Loss, thirteen thousand 
dollars. 

July 1. Fire in Jackson; Congress Hall, Washing- 
ton Hotel, and Schlacter's building, being consumed. 

Two men injured, one fatally, in the Eureka mine, 
by the falling of a timber. Hayne bled to death 
in a few minutes. 

July 3. "William Ritter, owner of ditch property in 
Amador county, shot near Michigan Bar, by masked 
persons. Sam. Marshall supposed to be one of the 
party. 

July 17. Lipker killed in the Keystone mine, by 
the falling of a timber. 

July 22. Earthquake shock felt through the county; 
severest on the junction of the foot-hills and plains. 

July 23. Andrew McClure fatally injured by pre- 
mature explosion of a blast in the Seaton mine. 

July. Discovery of rich pocket in the Hinkley mine, 
Jackson. 

August 10. Son of Mr. Raymond of Jackson, aged 
two years, drowned in Silver lake. 

August 20. Quarrel among a party of Mexicans 



near Aqueduct, in which one Francisco Vedall was 
killed by Manuel Peralto. 

August 31. Azariah Sollers committed suicide, by 
shooting himself through the head. Cause, finan- 
cial embarrassment. 

August. Central Pacific railroad purchased Sacra- 
mento Valley railroad. 

October 8. Great fire in lone, destroying one entire 
block. 

October 12. Explosion of the steamer Yo Semite, in 
which W. A. Rogers, and Senator-elect G. W. 
Seaton, were killed. 

October 26. James Casey, while intoxicated, was 
run over by the stage in the night, near the sum- 
mit, and fatally injured. 

October 27. Martin Collins killed in the Eureka 
mine, at Sutter Creek. 

October 29. Spaniard killed by Mr. Moore, in a 
difficulty on Wilson's ranch. 

October. J. W. Bicknell os. Amador County, in Dis- 
trict Court. Plaintiff recovered $1,362.19, for acting 
as clerk of District and Probate Courts. 

December 3. James Fagan killed near Drytown, 
by a cave in the Potosi mine. 

December 23. A. H. Rose elected Senator, to fill 
the vacancy caused by the death of G. W. Seaton. 

Cosumnes copper mine shipped four hundred tons 
of ore during June, July, and August. 
1866. 

February 1. Attack made on a Chinese mining 
camp near Upper Rancheria, in which two China- 
men lost their lives. Dan Myers, hearing the firing, 
ran to the assistance of the Chinamen, receiving 
a ball in his knee, after which the robbers left. 

February 28. The body of L. L. Leonard found 
west of the town of Enterprise, accidentally shot 
by himself. 

February. David Robinson, mining near Volcano, 
picked up a nugget of pure gold, weighing five 
and three-fourths pounds. 

March 18. Nugget found near Clinton, worth six 
hundred and thirty-five dollars and twenty-five 
cents. 

March. Titus Rowe shot and instantly killed, by 
M. Tynan, who was acquitted at the June term 
of the District Court, 1867. 

April 2. Mexican, name unknown, found dead in 
his claim, near Jackson. 

April 3. Niel Toland killed near Irish Hill, by cav- 
ing of bank of earth. 

May 16. Dr. Lund *of Muletown, near lone, com- 
mitted suicide by cutting his throat with a razor. 
Financial embarrassment. 

May 20. Child of Mr. and Mrs. Galavia burned to 
death at Volcano. 

June 2. Report of Supervisors, outstanding war- 
rants, exclusive of interest, $104,094.57^. 

June 24. Anson Perry died from the effect of a 
pistol shot, by a Chiuaman engaged in robbing a 
chicken roost. 



CHRONOLOGICAL. 



331 



June 25. Hoisting works of the Sorocco mine, near 

Volcano, destroyed by fire. 
June. Bank of California organized. 
July 3. J. Weimbach killed by John Fridenburg, 

with a billiard ball, during a quarrel at Volcano. 
July 4. Pedro Roja, a native of Chili, murdered by 

parties unknown, near Piddletown. 
Santa Nino, a native of Chili, killed at Jackson, by 

Louis Eobinson. 
A woman, named Paublo Monaz, killed in her house 

on Main street in Jackson, by a Spaniard known 

as Jose G-. Froile. 
Three men, Fitzgerald, Branahan, and Faulkner, 

burned to death while asleep, in a house at Copper 

Hill. 
July 7. Precincts under the new registration law 

established by Board of Supervisors. 
July 18. Otto Walther appointed Treasurer in place 

of L. Rabolt, declared ineligible. 
August 16. Harvey Lee, Assemblyman from Ama- 
dor and Alpine counties, and Judge of the 16th 

Judicial District, thrown from a wagon and killed, 

in Sacramento. 
August 18. J. H. Hammond robbed, and left tied 

to a tree near Sutter Creek, where he remained 

two days before he was released. 
August 24. Water melon brought into Jackson from 

Chaleur's ranch, Mokelumne river, weighing fifty- 
six pounds. 
August. "Wash. Wright, formerly connected with 

the press in the county, died at San Francisco of 

delirium tremens. 
September. Four cases of murder to be tried in 

District Court. 
October 10. M. Bates, near middle fork of Jackson, 

lost his house and contents by fire. 
December 24. Z. H. Denman found a thirty-three 

ounce lump of gold, near Grass Valley. 
December 25. A. B. Crawford died. 
December 29. Stage stopped between Forest Home 

and lone City, by robbers; no treasure. ' 
1867. 
January 5. Mrs. Church and child drowned in 

Indian creek. 
March 15. Nicholas Orleans killed in the Atchison 

quartz mine. 
March 31. Italian stabbed by countryman, at Sut- 
ter Creek. 
May 5. James Eodda and Samuel Poglaise killed, 

by falling down the shaft of the Plymouth mine. 
June 3. Manuel Timothy killed at Volcano, by the 

caving of his mine. 
July 10. Philip Burger's brewery, near the Gate, 

consumed by fire. Loss, two thousand dollars. 
July 20. John Phillips of Fiddletown, fatally stabbed 

during a quarrel, by W. T. Gist, formerly Deputy 

Sheriff of the county. 
August 4. Wagstaff, of Volcano, thrown from a 

wagon going down the Sutter Creek hill, and 

fatally injured. 



August 6. James M. Hanford appointed Justice of 

the Peace, vice H. T. Barnum resigned. 
August 30. A. M. Ballard, a forty-niner, and for 

many years a resident of Volcano, fell from a 

bridge in Alamo, Contra Costa county, and sus- 
tained injuries from which he died in a few hours. 
October 10. Amador Mining Company incorporated. 

Trustees, Alvinza Hayward, L. A. Garnett, F. 

Sunderland, A. H. Bose, and S. F. Butterworth. 
October 22. D. B. Whitman crushed to death in 

the Eureka mine at Sutter Creek. 
October 23. Two men fell one hundred feet in the 

Seaton mine, Drytown, and sustained no serious 

injury. 
October 31. Large barn owned by O. N. Morse of 

Q Ranch, with three horses and eleven hogs, 

totally destroyed by fire. Loss, eight thousand 

dollars; insured for three thousand five hundred 

dollars. 
November. 8. James C. McFarland, a fair-haired, 

girlish looking boy, convicted of attempting to 

commit murder by poisoning. A terrible natural 

depravity was proved. Sentenced to four years 

in State Reform School. 
November 28. James Morgan, of the Oneida -mill, 

broke his leg. 
November 30. A. M. Chappelle committed suicide, 

by tying weights to his feet, and jumping into the 

water. 
December 3. First frost sufficient to kill melon vines. 
December 10. Mrs. Foster, a widow lady at Sutter 

Creek, was killed by a man called " Eureka John," 

by a blow from his fist. 
December 16. R. Bradshaw removed from the 

office of Assessor and Collector, and James H. 

Lowrey appointed to fill the vacancy. 
December 17. Joseph King killed in the R. R. 

mine by a cave, which lacerated the femoral artery, 

producing death in a short time. 
December 27. Big Bar bridge nearly destroyed by 

high water; the loss falling mOstly on Mr. Parrish. 
December. Stage robbed near lone of ten thousand 

dollars, which was recovered by detectives. 
Forty-five thousand gallons of wine made in the 

vicinity of Jackson. Estimate for county, two 

hundred thousand gallons. 

1868. 

January 1. Robinson, of Fiddletown, drowned in 
the Cosumnes river, near Yeomet. 

January 4. Body of unknown man found on End- 
sley's ranch. 

January 7. Boundaries of school districts estab- 
lished. 

January 18. Brinn and Newman's store at Sutter 
Creek robbed of goods valued at one thousand 
dollars. 

February 15. Steckler's house at Jackson burned, 
the inmates barely escaping. 

February 25. Owen Fallon, a respectable man, 



332 



BISTORT? OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



buing mistaken for an escape Prom Mokelumno 

Bill jail, was shol by William Boyd. 
March 29. Isaac's store at NWtqnfiUe destroyed 

by fire; supposed to be the work of an incendiary. 

I iosb, i bree thousand dollars. 
April .;. Pirfll train of cars run on Western Pacific 

railroad 

April 6. Stage robbed on the Mokclumne Hill road. 
Wells, P'ar'go & Cb.'s box rifled. Robbers caught 
t he same day. 

April 1!'. Fire at Volcano, destroying Mooney's 
Saloon, and other property. Loss, twenty thou- 
sand dollars. 

May l(i. Fire at Sutter Creek, destroj'ing Sheri- 
dan's harness shop, Myer's saloon, Cuppet's tin 
shop, Grady's saloon, and Sutter Creek bakery. 
Loss, ten thousand dollars. 

May 2G. Shoemaker shot in Sacramento by A. B. 
Courtwright, formerly of lone. 

May 27. Large fire in Jackson, originating in China- 
town. Loss, fifteen thousand dollars; mostly prop- 
erty of A. C. Brown. 

June 2. Fire in Volcano, destroying G-oldworthy's 
saloon, Burleson's warehouse, and other property. 

June 10. Amador wagon road leased to John Hosley. 

June 13. William Moore tried several times for 
mui*der; the jury in the cases disagreeing, he plead 
guilt}', and was sentenced for one year to State 
prison. 

June 16. Fire at Volcano, destroying Sorocco's store. 

June 17. District Court decided that James Carroll 
was the lawful Supervisor for District No. 1, 
thereby ousting C. H. Ingalls. 

June 25. A man by the name of Williams fell into 
the Eureka shaft and was instantly killed. 

June 27. Captain Richards shot by Levy Conley at 
Volcano; did not terminate fatally. 

July 12. Ed. Burns falls four hundred feet in the 
Eureka mine, at Sutter Creek, and is instantly 
killed. 

August 25. Workmen killed in Eureka shaft at 
Sutter Creek. 

September 7. Kennedy mill started. 

September 11. D. C. White's house, Jackson, burned. 

September 12. Volcano burned from the St. George 
to Casinelli's store, including Friden burg's saloon, 
Nicholas' meat market and stable, George Shaffer's 
saloon, and other property. 

September 23. Death of Mrs. A. H. Rose, at Ama- 
dor City. 

October 21. Earthquake at San Francisco; sharp 
shock along the foot-hills of Amador county. 

November 28. Cuneo's house, about two miles from 
Jackson, burned. 

December 30. Fire in Jackson. Loss, fifteen thou- 
sand dollars. 

Year of fires at Volcano, five having occurred. 
1869. 

January 1. Attempted murder of two children and 
suicide, by J. R. Walker, at Zimmerman's ranch, 



near Mokclumne river. One child, a son, died 
January 13. 

January 2. Stage robbed by four highwaymen, 

between Fiddletown and Drytown. 
January 21. Isaac Pierce killed by Joseph Damonti, 

near the Newton copper mine. 
February 10. High water; streams as full as in '61, 

without doing much injury. 
February 11. Chinaman found frozen to death on 
the hill above the Jackson brewery. 

March 14. Coblcntz's store at Fiddletown partially 
destroyed by fire. 

March 22. Sanguinetti's store-house, at Jackson, 
burned. Loss, one thousand dollars. 

April 6. Stage line established to Gait, connecting 
with the California Pacific railroad. 

April 21. Mexican found dead near Fiddletown, 
supposed to have been murdered by Chinamen. 

April 29. Death of Judge S. W. Brock way, of con- 
gestive chills, in San Mateo county, at the house 
of Alvinza Hayward. 

May 10. Union Pacific and Central Pacific rail- 
roads met at Promontory Point. 

May 30. Frenchman near Volcano committed sui- 
cide by shooting himself. 

Chinaman near Volcano committed suicide by hang- 
ing. 

German, name unknown, near New York ranch, 
committed suicide by taking strychnine. 

June 24. Stage line to Gait established. 

June 27. John Scandling killed at the Oneida mine, 
by falling down the shaft. 

August 1. Dwelling of A. P. Woods near Fiddle- 
town destroyed by fire. 

August 6. Fire at Jackson, destroying Martell's 
blacksmith shop, Berry's livery-stable, Wells, Fargo 
& Co.'s express office; supposed to be incendiary. 

August 8. Attempted assassination of Phipps, engin- 
eer at Keystone mill. 

August 21. Fire in Jackson, destroying the shop 
of Edward Muldoon,andthe dwelling-house of San- 
guinettti Caminetti. 

September 6. John Fitz Simmons' store at Buena 
Vista entered, safe abstracted and robbed. Loss, 
slight. 

September 11. John Cables, at Indian Diggings, 
assassinated in the night time by unknown parties. 

September 12. J. Foot Turner, of Jackson, attacked 
with paralysis. 

September 19. Sale of the Keystone mine and mill, 
by A. H. Rose to a San Francisco company, for 
one hundred and two thousand dollars. 

October 8. Charles Curratto found dead near the 
Court House, with the appearance of having fallen 
from an upper window. 

October 13. Union House at Jackson fired by Julia 
Dorr, the cook. 

November 6. Francis Tibbetts of Sutter Creek died, 
aged forty-five years. 

December 6. Lamb's bridge fell, instantly killing 



CHRONOLOGICAL. 



333 



George Kopp of Sutter, -frith seven of the eight 

horses composing the team. 
December 19. House of Joseph Zerga, at Clinton, 

destroyed by fire. 
California Steam Navigation Company transferred 

all their property to the Central Pacific Railroad 

Company, sometime during the year. 

1870. 

February 7. Board of Supervisors passed a resolu- 
tion, requesting our delegation in the Legislature 
to use their influence to get a law passed author- 
izing and compelling the Board of Supervisors to 
set aside sixty cents on each hundred dollars, as 
a sinking fund for outstanding registered warrants. 

March 2. An Italian, name unknown, killed in his 
claim by a cave of earth. 

March 15. Thomas Leach killed by Joseph in a 
quarrel. 

March 18. Act approved to provide for the redemp- 
tion of outstanding warrants, and to prevent a 
farther increase of the debt of said county. 

April 10. Amador mine took fire on the seven-hun» 
dred-foot level, men all escaping. 

April 18. Stage robbed between lone and Fiddle- 
town of two thousand dollars; robbers arrested, 
and money recovered. 

The house of John Kelly, near Jackson, destroyed 
by fire. 

April 30. A son of Mr. Yeley, living near Jackson, 
fell from a tree, and was fatally injured. 

May 15. School-house at Sutter Creek burned by 
an incendiary. 

May 20. Isaac Tripp, a highly respected citizen, 
killed by a cave of earth in his claim at Butte City. 

May 28. Fire at Sutter Creek, destroying McHenry's 
saloon, Byrd's barber shop, Joyce's tin shop, Tib- 
bett's pattern shop, Quinlan's saloon, Harris' vari- 
ety store; supposed to be the work of an incendiary. 

May 29. Snow fell at Pine Grove. 

June 4. Hubert Pritchard, formerly a resident of 
Volcano, committed suicide by shooting himself 
in the head with a pistol. 

June 20. Row in a camp of Indians, resulting in 
the death of one, and seriously wounding several 
more. 

July 8. Tom Taylor, an Indian desperado, killed 
with a dose of strychnine by another Indian, on 
account of wounded honor in family matters. 

July 29. Two Chinamen killed at Sutter Creek, by 
the falling of a bank of dirt. 

August 7. Stage stopped near Yolcano, and Wells, 
Fargo & Co.'s treasure box robbed of a bar of 
gold worth five thousand dollars; four thousand 
dollars was offered for the apprehension of the 
robbers. 

August 20. Larry Gannon killed in the Eureka 
mine, by falling out of the bucket. 

August. Laborers' Association established at Sutter 
Creek. 



September 8. Robert Bags' house, in lone City, 
burglarized of coin to the amount of one hundred 
and seventy-five dollars. 

1871. 

March 7. Tax of the Arroyo Seco Grant company 
reduced from $11,499.67 to $7,287.50. Assessed 
value, $394,500. 

Tax on Oneida mine reduced from the basis of 
assessment of $100,000, to that of $76,800, making 
the taxes $2,238.72. 

July 23. Shooting affray at Sutter Creek, in which 
Hugh McMenemy and B. W. Hatch lost their 
lives. 

August 28. Death of J. Foot Turner, County Judge, 
at Jackson. 

September 12. T. M. Pawling appointed Judge in 
place of J. Foot Turner, deceased. 

October 1. Indian killed by members of his tribe, 
in a drunken row, 

October 4. Three Indians near lone lassoed a Mexi- 
can, and dragged him until he was dead. 

October 7. House of Chas. Bennett, Sutter Creek, 
destroyed by fire. 

November 11. Giovanni Quirolo fatally injured 5n 
the Paugh mine, near Clinton. 

December 23. High water and dangerous traveling; 
roads nearly impassable. 

December. J. A. Eagon announced his intention of 
acting with the Republican party. 
1872. 

February 5. Lamb's bridge fell, instantly killing 
Larkin Lamb and John Kirk. 

February 13. A Chileno killed a Mexican in Mur- 
derers' Gulch, near Drytown. 

February 17. L. N. Ketcham, formerly State Sen- 
ator from Amador county, died at Yreka. 

February 23. J. W. Holman fatally shot during a 
quarrel, by "W. Johnson, who was sentenced to 
State prison for life. 

March 1. Austrian killed in the Eureka mine, by 
the falling of a stick of timber. 

March 23. Hoisting works of the Summit mine 
destroyed by fire; supposed to be incendiary. 

March 24. A. McElrath instantly killed in the 
Mahoney mine, by a swinging stick of timber. 

March 25. Severe shock of earthquake felt all over 
the county, 2:30 A. m. 

May 1. Stage robbed between Pine Grove and Vol- 
cano, often thousand dollars. 

May 11. The Marklee mine cleaned up thirteen 
thousand dollars, after sixteen days' run with 
twelve stamps. 

June 13. Amador mine (Eureka) took fire; Tom 
Frakes seriously injured during the efforts to con- 
trol it. Loss, one hundred thousand dollars. 

June 15. George Parker, of Plymouth, thrown from 
a horse while riding in Sutter Creek, and becoming 
entangled in the. stirrups, was dragged to death. 

July. Kennedy mine in twelve days' run made 
nine thousand dollars. 



83 I 



HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



A.ugus1 •_'.">. August MoLarnau thrown from a horse 

and killed, near Jackson. 
Beptember 1. W . II. Bledso thrown from his horse 

and instantly killed. 
Beptember L2. Fire in Butter Creek on Eureka 

Btreet, destroying several buildings. 
Beptember 13. A son of George Pregnall fell from 

a wagon, near Mace's mill, and broke bin neck. 
September 19. Italian boarding-house at Sutter 

Creek burned. 
September 20. Fire in Sutter Creek, consuming 

dwelling house, and other property. 
October 18. House of Clement Zeres, at Volcano, 

destroyed by fire. 
November 15. Richard Jackson thrown into the 

Amador shaft (Eureka) by the swinging of the 

hoisting tub, and precipitated to the bottom, thir- 
teen hundred feet, tearing his body to pieces. 
November 18. Peiser's clothing store and Peck's 

butcher shop, at Sutter Creek, burglarized. Loss, 

one thousand dollars. 
November 20. James Burke ran over by his team, 

and fatally injured. 
December 2. Store of S. Hanford, Yolcano, destroyed 

by fire. Loss, forty thousand dollars. 
December 5. George Howard's barn with contents, 

near Jackson, destroyed by fire. 
December 21. James Cole found dead in his cabin 

near the Oneida. Excessive drink. 
December 23. J. L. Howard, foreman of the Lincoln 

Mining Company, Sutter, caught in the machinery, 

and instantly killed. 
December. Phoenix mill, at Plymouth, forty stamps, 

put in operation. 

1873. 

January 6. Total indebtedness Amador county, 
§208,884.58. 

January 13. Attempt to poison four men with 
strychnine, by putting it in the bread; James Avis, 
John Yates, N. Rodovich, and an Austrian, par- 
taking were made sick, but recovered. 

February 1. Shooting affray at the Lincoln mine, 
on account of strike and change of time. No one 
killed. 

February 16, 17. Heavy snow-storm; several inches 
at Jackson, two feet at Pine Grove, three feet at 
Butterfield's. 

February 18. Stabbing affray between George En- 
field and Cal Dickens, the former being seriously 
wounded. 

February 21. John J. Watkinson, formerly of lone, 
shot and killed J. S. Robinson at Yallejo. 

Masquerade ball given by the B. B's at Jackson. 

February 22. Fred Tardif shot and instantly killed, 
by Abram S. Wooly. 

March 1. Waterman H. Nelson, an old resident of 
Amador, shot near Los Angeles, by a man named 
Parker. 

March 2. Harker's barn, near Yolcano, with fifty 
tons of hay, burned. 



Much 7. Shooting affair at Plymouth between 
Upton and Deakins, wounding Jackson, who 
undertook to separate them. 

March 8. George Chiradelli and Patrick Collier 
instantly killed in the Mahoncy mine, by the break- 
ing of the hoisting rope, and the fall of the bucket 
on the men who were working in the bottom of 
the shaft. 

March 16. J. S. Tanner's house, near Sutter, 
destroyed by fire. 

March 31. Masquerade ball at lone. 

April 25. B. Traboca mysteriously killed in the 
Oneida mine, while descending the shaft in a large 
iron bucket. 

April 28. Decision of Secretary of Interior averse 
to the State of California, in the matter of title to 
the school sections. 

April. Prevalence of epizootic through the county, 
nearly all the horses in the livery stables being 
useless. 

May 24. D. Maher's barn, two miles from Jackson, 
burned with the contents, hay, grain, etc. 

June 6. The body of John Ker found (formerly 
working at the Oneida), having been exposed to 
the weather and depredations of wild animals 
during the winter. Supposed to have wandered 
away in a fit of insanity. 

June 7. John Everest killed in the Eureka (Amador) 
mine by falling down the shaft. 

June 20. The house of A. Sheakly burned in the 
night time, the owner barely escaping with his 
life. Supposed to be an incendiary fire. 

John Collins instantly killed in the Amador mine 
by falling down the shaft two hundred feet. 

June. Bryant & Co. commenced the preliminary 
work of floating lumber and wood in the Mokel- 
umne river. 

July 1. Amador Canal Company incorporated ; cap- 
ital stock five hundred thousand dollars. 

July 12. George Hosenfelt instantly killed by the 
explosion of a giant cartridge while fishing in the 
Mokelumne river. 

August 12. Jerry King thrown from his wagon near 
Jackson and seriously maimed, losing both hands. 

August 16. Residence of P. Grady, Sutter Creek, 
destroyed by fire. 

August 17. L. McLaine of Yolcano thrown from his 
carriage, breaking a leg. 

August 25. Death of Dr. Wm. Ives, one of the old- 
est practicing physicians of Amador county. 

August 30. Shooting affray between Silas Penry and 
E. Turner, in Folger's saloon, Jackson. 

September 5. Great disaster in Lincoln mine by 
which nine persons lost their lives, namely, Patrick 
Frazier, John Collier, Dennis Lynch, William 
Coombs, W. H. Rule, G. B. Bobbino, Bartholomeo 
Gazzolo, Antonio Robles, and Nicholas Balulich. 

September 8. Death of E. Turner of Jackson from 
effect of a pistol shot by S. Penry^ 



CHRONOLOGICAL. 



335 



September 11. Death of J. H. Bradley at San Buena- 
ventura. 

September 15. House of General McMurran de- 
stroyed by fire and two men severely burned, at 
Ham's station. 

September 20. House of John Van Dusen, near 
Mountain Springs, destroyed by fire. Loss, two 
thousand dollars. 

October 3. B. Gardella fell down one of the shafts 
of the Oneida and instantly killed. 

October 18. The house of John Cook, near Lancha 
Plana, entered by six masked men for the purpose 
of robbery, failing because they could not keep the 
children (John has a full dozen) from running out 
and giving the alarm. 

November 28. Mrs. Good's house at Buckeye burned. 

December 2. Snow fell to the depth of several inches 
on the plains around lone as well as in Stockton 
and Sacramento. 

December 7. Dennis Townsend, school teacher and 
ex-School Superintendent, pronounced insane and 
sent to Stockton. 

December 9. Daniel O'Donnell killed by the falling 
of rock in the Amador mine. 

December 18. James Cyne murdered by John Can- 
ifex near Forest Home, by stabbing with a knife, 
Canifex being intoxicated. 

December 20. George Shonat drowned in .Sutter 
creek, three miles above the town, while intoxica- 
ted. 

December 21 . John Harker, living above Volcano, 
mysteriously shot while in bed. 
1874. 

January 1. Estimated population of Amador county 
ten thousand five hundred. Estimated assessment 
roll two million seven hundred and thirty-eight 
thousand seven hundred and seventy dollars. 

January 23. Clement Zeres found dead in his room, 
with the appearance of having committed suicide 
by shooting himself through the head with a rifle. 

January 25. Thomas Filmer found dead in his cabin 
five miles from Jackson. 

February 6. Dwelling-house of E. S. Schultz, near 
Volcano, destroyed by fire while the family were 
absent. 

February 26. T. A. Springer, State Printer, and 
founder of the Amador Ledger, died at San Fran- 
cisco after several months' illness. 

February 28. School-house at Sutter Creek burned. 
Supposed to be an incendiary fire. 

March 1. Cutting affray at Volcano, between G. 
Cassinelli and A.Deluchi, in which the former was 
instantly killed. 

Cutting affray between two Chilenos, in which 
Antonio Lopez was fatally stabbed. 

March 2. G. W. Wagner, first Associate Judge of 
Amador county and formerly a member of the Leg- 
islature, died in Jackson. 

March 4. R. N. Smith killed by the premature ex- 
plosion of a blast on the line of the Amador canal. 



April 1. A little daughter of James Grello drowned 
in a flume at Volcano. 

April 18. Joseph Largomarcino fell into the shaft of 
the Lincoln mine and was instantly killed. 

April 24. E. P. Gilliland, a native of Alabama, found 
dead in his cabin. 

April 25. Cutting affray between James Sibert and 
Francis Bergoon,in which the former was instantly 
killed. 

May 28. Stephen Kenton found dead in his cabin 
four miles above Amador City. 

May 30. Terrible accident in Amador mine, caused 
by the slipping of the reel on the shaft while hoist- 
ing the cage containing five men named Frank 
Fallon, James Moyle, A. A. Corleiss, Samuel James, 
and , all of whom were instantly killed. 

June 11. Barn belonging to Mr. Chautelle, Sutter 
Creek, destroyed by fire. 

June 12. Death of James H. Hardy at San Fran- 
cisco. 

June 27. Last issue of the Sutter Creek Independent. 

August 1. Water turned into the Amador canal. 

Contract between H. B. Piatt, constructor of I. 
and S. Railroad, and Arroyo Seco Grant Company 
filed in county records. 

August 22. John Shearer killed by the fall of a rock 
from the ascending bucket while working in the 
Phoenix mine, Plymouth. 

August 29. J. R. Hardenburg's house at the Casco 
mine burned by an incendiary. 

August. John Ratto killed by John Devoto. Seven 
hundred and fifty dollars offered for Devoto's 
apprehension. 

September 2. Local option election in Township No. 
2. On the same day also was held an election for 
Supervisor in Supervisor District No. 1, including 
Township No. 2. M. Murray was elected Super- 
visor. The election for or against license : lone, 
for license, one hundred and seven, against, one hun- 
dred and nine ; Lancha Plana, for license, thirty- 
nine, against, twenty-three. 

September 18. Boarding house at the Kennedy 
mine destroyed by fire. 

October 13. Water run through the Amador canal 
reaching the distributing reservoir. 

O. B. Burton thrown from his horse near Butte 
City, sustaining fatal injuries. 

October 16. Barn at Tarr's mill destroyed by fire. 
Loss, five thousand dollars. 

October 25. Heavy snow-storm in the mountains, 
causing considerable difficulty in getting the cattle 
and sheep off the Summer pastures. 

December 18. John H. Krugcr committed suicide 
at the house of W. Atkinson, Jackson valley, by 
shooting himself through the head. 
1875. 

January 12. James Melody killed by falling rock 
in the Phoenix mine, Plymouth. 

January 24. Death of John B. Keyes at Sutter 
Creek. 



:;:;i; 



BISTORT OF AMADOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Maivh 1. House .if .1. M. I'. Johnston at M ulelown 

destroyed by fire. Lobs estimated at tun thou- 
sand dollars. 

Ma\ I. M. E. PearsOD fatally shot by David Ryal, 
about three milrs from I >ryto\vn. 

May •_'. Stage and passengers robbed on tho Gait 
road near lone, pf about QUe thousand dollars. 

May 8. (I'rrat robbery of county funds, amounting 
to fifteen thousand two hundred and forty-eight 
dollars, most of wh'udi belonged to tho school fund. 

June 17. Special meeting of Board of (Supervisors, 
to consider the matter of the loss of the county 
fund-. 

June 20. David Ryal found guilty of murder in the 
tiist degree, for killing M. Pearson, April last, near 
Dry town. 

Juno 21. Death of Rev. S. G. Briggs, for many 
years Superintendent of Schools. 

July 18. The residence of William Smith, in Sutter 
Creek, destroj-cd by fire. 

Daniel Moon killed while blasting logs, near Amador 
City. 

September 1. Thomas Andrews found dead, par- 
tiallj- devoured by hogs, at Bledford's ranch on 
Amador wagon road, in accordance with a dream 
to that effect. 

September 25. George Lafferty fatally injured by 
being thrown from his horse, near Plymouth. . 

September 26. John Devoto acquitted of the charge 
of murder in killing John Ratto, in 1874. 

November 7. Frank Williams killed in a difficulty 
with Peter Yaoan, near Dry town. 

November 27. Thos. McCullough found drowned in 
Jackson creek, near Filmer's ranch. 

December 15. A Cornishman, named Rogers, while 
ascending the ladder of the Amador mine, fell about 
two hundred and fifty feet, and was instantly 
killed. 

December 18. Extensive fire in the Amador mine. 
1S76. 

January 1. Masquerade ball by the K. A. C. 

January 3. Francisco Viannelli found dead in his 
cabin, near the Zeile mine. 

January 9. Stage robbed between Plymouth and 
Fiddletown. 

January 31. Attempted robbery of stage near Wil- 
low Springs. 

March 18. Capture of the noted stage robber, Joa- 
quin Murietta,* who escaped from the cabin, below 
Jackson, when two others were arrested. 

March 18. Three persons, Mr. D. B. Baccigalupi, 
Miss Carrie Payne, and Miss Louisa Periare, 
drowned in attempting to cross the Mokelumne 
river, below Lancha Plana. 

April 13. Fire in Amador, destroying G. W. Kling's 
saloon, W. Burn's drug store, P. Heisch's barber 
shop, William Payton's saloon, M. Mooney's saloon 
and dwelling, Kerr's livery-stable. 

April 14. Samuel Mugford fell in the shaft of the 
Garfield mine, and was instantly killed. 

*Not the famous bandit of 1852. 



May 2. Richard Webb arrested, at the instance of 

the Board of Supervisors, for libel. 
May 19. Mrs. Murphy's saloon and dwelling, near 

Jackson, burned. 
May 20. Snow at Jackson, and other mountain 

towns, falling five inches deep at Volcano. 
May 23. Robbery of safe in Wells, Fargo and Co.'s 

office in Amador. 
May 26. G. W. Arthur, a patient at the hospital, 

committed suicide by hanging. 
June 2. Attempt to murder L. Largomarcini and 

family, at Sutter Creek, with giant powder, by 

which the building was seriously damaged, but no 

lives lost. 
June 18. Younglove's barn at lone burned, with 

three mules and seventy-five tons of hay. Fire 

supposed to be incendiary. 
June 20. Indian killed by trap gun while robbing 

Joseph Cuneo's sluices. 
July 1. James Welch, Kennedy Flat, died from sun- 
stroke. 
Arnold Slinghaide, Plymouth, died from sun-stroke. 
July 4. Paolo Largomarcini, mentally deranged, 

perished from sickness and exposure in Sailor's 

Gulch, near Slabtown. 
William Baker, of Jackson valley, thrown from his 

horse near lone, and fatally injured. 
July 18. Barn belonging to Mrs. Westfall, in Jack- 
son, destroyed by fire. 
July 20. Edward Going fatally injured by a cave 

in the Oneida mine. 
July 27. Miguel Doraneo found dead in his cabin, 

evidently murdered some days before, by parties 

unknown. 
July 30. Death of Dr. J. A. Brown of Sutter Creek, 

an old and highly esteemed resident of the town. 
July 31. Volcano Tunnel Company broke ground. 
August 3. M. W. Gordon announced his return to 

the Democratic party. 
September 11. Stage robbed on the Drytown road 

near Finn's ranch, by Chas. Thompson and 

Chas. Tedeman, both of whom were subsequently 

arrested and convicted. 
September 26. Blass Thomas instantly killed in the 

Oneida mine, by the falling of a timber down the 

shaft. 
October 21. Accident in the Oneida mine, instantly 

killing two men and wounding two others. 
November 3. Tournament at lone City. 
November 11. Samuel Keller, of Sutter Creek, com- 
mitted suicide by shooting himself with a pistol. 
November 26. Major Green's house, between lone 

and Jackson, destroyed by fire. 
December 7. Trains commenced running between 

lone and Gait. 
December 11. F. N. Hoss kicked by a horse, from 

the effects of which he died on the following 

morning. 
December 14. House of Nicholas Radovich destroyed 

by fire. Insured for sixteen hundred dollars. 



CHRONOLOGICAL. 



337 



Assessment roll of Amador county, two million five 
hundred and sixty-three thousand three hundred 

and seventy dollars. 

1877. 

January 15, 16, 17. Heavy rains, doing much dam- 
age to the Gait and lone railroad, one car-load of 
passengers having to remain on the road all night. 

January 21. Death of Hon. T. M. Pawling, County 
Judge. 

February 1. Butte Basin Mining Company incor- 
porated. 

February 2. Incorporation of the lone Coal Com- 
pany by Mark Hopkins, D. D. Colton, C. E. Green, 
F. S. Dougherty, and C. H. Redington. 

February 4. Stage robbed of fifteen hundred dollars 
near Mountain Springs House. 

February 23. Boai'ding-house of Mrs. Hurley, at 
Sutter Creek, destroyed by fire; adjoining houses, 
owned by Burns and Hubbel, seriously damaged. 

March 6. Wife and three children of A. Liversedge, 
formerly of this county, burned to death at Colusi. 

March 18. Three children of Jesse Rhodes, of Buck- 
eye valley, aged eight, six, and three years, died of 
diphtheria about the same hour. 

March 21. Coffin warehouse of Songer and Fagan, 
Sutter Creek, consumed by fire. 

March 31. Nichola Rossiggi fatally stabbed by 
Dominico Caranza. 

April 17. Death of William H. Stowers, Superinten- 
dent of Schools, at Bartlett Springs, where he had 
gone for his health. 

May 6. A. Norton, of Jackson, appointed to fill the 
unexpired term of W. H. Stowers, deceased. 

May 26. Laying of the corner-stone of the Presby- 
terian church at lone. 

June 5. Dwelling-house of Antone Silva, Jackson, 
destroyed by fire. Loss two thousand dollars. 

June 10. Charles Cox, of Lancha Plana, found dead 
near the suspension flume, with the appearance of 
having fallen over the cliff of rocks, which at that 
place is one hundred and thirty feet high. 

June 13. Dwelling-house of Jones and Angore, 
Buckeye valley, destroyed by fire. 

June 21. New safe put into the County Treasurer's 
office. 

June 22. Dwelling of L. Babolt, at Sutter Creek 
destroyed by fire. Loss, three thousand dollars. 
Dwelling of John Battiste, near Jackson, burned. 
Loss, two thousand five hundred dollars. 

August 7. John Baker, while in a fit of delirium tre- 
mens, threw himself against a circular saw in rapid 
motion, at Brannon's mill, receiving fatal wounds. 

August. 25. Fire at Jackson, destroying Dr. Peter's 
office. 

September 1. Boy Chamberlain, a forty-niner and an 
old resident of Amador county, found dead in his 
chair at his home near the Newton Copper mine. 
Coroner's verdict, " Death from disease of the 
heart." 
43 



September 12. Cars ran off the track below lone, 

fatally injuring W. F. Gury. 
October 8. House of Jerry Donovan, Sutter Creek, 

destroyed by fire. 
October 17. James McGee, former engineer at the 
Oneida, while in a condition of mental derange- 
ment jumped into one of the shafts of the mine, 
falling a distance of six hundred feet, being 
instantly killed. 
October 22. Bucket fell in Oneida, killing John Gard- 
ner and John Luderman, and wounding James 
Forchey. 
October 31. House of P. Dwyer, Clinton, burned. 
December 2. James Arthur fatally injured in the 
Amador mine by the caving of the drift in which 
he was at work. 
December 7. Edward E. Stitt died at DrytOwn from 
injuries received while taking down the old Loyal 
mill. 
December 22. Hon. John A. Eagon and W. L. 
McKimm thrown out of a buggy near Jackson. 
The former seriously and the latter fatally injured, 
Mr. McKimm dying in two or three hours after. 
1878. 
January 23. Willow Springs school-house burned. 
February 15. Death of the Hon. Robert Ludgate, 

member of the Assembly for Amador county. 
February 17. Mequel Vara found dead in his cabin 

at Butte City. 
High water at lone and all the western part of 

the county, destroying much property. 
Highest water ever known in Amador City, de- 
stroying considerable property and flooding some 
of the mines. 
Great flood in Jackson, drowning seven persons 
and carrying off and wrecking fifteen buildings. 
Loss, thirty thousand dollars. 
February 23. James Tippet killed in the Phoenix 
mine by falling out of the bucket while ascending. 
February 26. High wind, unroofing and blowing 
down buildings; Catholic church at Butte City 
blown down, steeple blown off Catholic church at 
Jackson, trees, fences, barns, flumes, and other 
things destroyed. 
February. The name of Fiddletown changed to 

Oleta, by Act of the Legislature. 
March 20. H. Trueb and Louis Dabovich taken to 

the asylum. 
May 3. House of Mrs. Botto, Sutter Creek, destroyed 

by fire. Loss, two thousand dollars. 
Difficulty between E. M. Phibbs and Fred Varvigat, 

lone, the latter being killed. 
May 12. Big reservoir of the Amador Canal Com- 
pany blown up and destroyed. 
June 5. Body of Giovani Arata found near Jackson. 
June 8. Jackson and Sutter Creek united by tele- 
phone. 
June 14. Largomarcini's hotel at Amador destroyed 
by fire. 



338 



BISTORT OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



June 19. Special election for delegates to Constitu- 
tional Convention; John A. Eagon and William 
II. IVoutv. elected. 

July :;. Barn owned by Mr. Cox, near Wbitmore'a 
mill, burned, 

July "». Shooting affray between George Earville 
and Peter Smith, the latter being instantly killed. 

July 10. McDonald's bouse, at Amador City, de- 
stroyed by fire. 

August 22. Moore mine started up. 

September 22. New York ranch house, blacksmith 
shop and barn burned, with all the contents. 

October 8. Mrs. Joseph Carreau, of Jackson, while 
in a condition of mental aberration, committed 
suicide by shooting herself through the head with 
a shot-gun. 

November 8. E. C. E. Yile, of lone, committed 
suicide by cutting his throat with a pen-knife. 

1879. 

January 4. Henry Peck, County Clerk, died of 
heart disease. He was a "49er," had been an 
extensive traveler, having visited Australia, the 
Amazon mines, Nevada, etc.; was a native of New 
York. 

January 6. Little daughter of Mrs. Hudson, near 
lone, accidentally shot by a playmate. 

February 1. Death of William H. Hooper, in Oak- 
land. He was formerly a proprietor of the Phoenix 
mine at Plymouth. 

February 5. Sorocco's store and adjoining build- 
ings, at Drytown, burned. 

February 21. Hugh Ward killed in a hydraulic 
claim at Irish Hill. 

May 6. Johnson drowned in Mokelumne river, near 
Clinton Bar. 

May 10. O. N. Morse's house, at the Q ranch, 
destroyed by fire. This was one of the oldest 
houses in the county, the Q ranch having been a 
noted place since '49. It was originally claimed 
by members of Company Q, United States Infantry. 

May 25. Edward Phibbs killed in a difficulty with 
Jesus Yalles, near Jackson Gate. 

June 18. lone connected with Jackson by telephone. 

June 18. House of Mrs. Zeres, at Volcano, burned. 

June 25. Amador Sentinel started. 

September 1. Dr. Morse's fruit dryer, Q ranch, 
destroyed by fire. Loss, fifteen hundred dollars. 

September 4. The house of David Schuler, Jackson, 
destroyed by fire, with all the contents. 

September 19. E. H. Young, of Amador, committed 
suicide by taking poison. 

September 30. Five hundred feet of the Amador 
Canal Company's pipe, near Clinton, blown up 
by giant power; supposed to have been done by 
parties damaged by the breaking of the reservoir, 
February 17. 

October 15. Boarding-house of Fopiano, at Key- 
stone mine, destroyed by fire. 

October 19. Son of Ed. Wiley, at the Wiley station 



on the Amador wagon road, fell into a deep well 
anil was drowned. 

November 6. Two men, Richard Collict and John 
Bachi, seriously injured, the latter fatally, by pre- 
mature explosion of blast. 

November 9. Jesus Aguirra killed by S. Iliguerra, 
for alleged seduction of the hitter's wife. 

November 15. Lodge of I. O. G. T. organized at 
Amador. 

November 17. John Bachi died from the effect of 
a premature blast in the Oneida mine. 

December 6. A. Swithenbank caught in the machi- 
nery of the marble mill, near Plymouth, and torn 
to pieces. 

December 12. A Cornishman by the name of Moyle 
fatally injured in the original Amador mine by the 
fall of a rock down the shaft. 

December 17. J. M. Myers robbed by highwaymen 
near Jackson. 

December 18. House of G. Bardaracco, near Jack- 
son, burned. 

C. A. Cordell instantly killed by falling six hundred 
feet down the shaft of the Phoenix mine. 

December. Stewart and Gillick sold their mine for 
twenty-five thousand dollars. 
1880. 

February 1. Difficulty in Jackson between C. Geno- 
chio, John Mori, A. Galli, Robert Yenglio, and John 
Balles, resulting fatally to the two latter. 

Februaiy 5. House of Joseph Carrara, Amador City, 
destroyed by fire. 

April 20. Flood at Drytown doing considerable 
damage to the mines. 

Flood in lone, the main streets being inundated, 
also many of the ranches in the vicinity, thirteen 
hundred feet of the railroad track being washed 
away. 

May 1. Last number of the lone Times issued. 

May 4. House of William Sutherland, lone, dam- 
aged by fire. 

May 6. Attempted robbery of stage near lone. 

May 7. G. Clincinovich instantly killed by falling 
down the Lincoln shaft. 

May 22. Several hundred dollars' worth of harnesses 
and wagons stolen from A. H. Palmer, Jackson 
valley, of which no trace was obtained. 

May 27. House of William Marshall, Sutter Creek, 
destroyed by fire. Loss, one thousand dollars. 

May 30. Difficulty between William Cook and 
Charles Tedeman at Buena Yista, the latter person 
being shot through the body. 

June 15. Joseph Anderson found dead near Dane's 
ranch, Grass Valley. 

July 31. A. D. McDonald fatally injured by a fall 
from the balcony of a hotel at Amador. 

August 3. Barn belonging to W. O. Clark, Drytown, 
destroyed by fire. 

August 18. Augustus Feine fatally injured by being 
caught in the machinery of the Florence mills at 
lone. 



CHRONOLOGICAL. 



339 



September 1. Charles Hutz found dead at lone. 

Death said to have been caused by heart disease. 
September 3. Charles Steckler of Jackson, an old 

and much respected citizen, committed suicide by 

hanging. 
September 9. Celebration of admission day by the 

pioneer society and citizens generally. 
October 9. Chautauqua literary society organized at 

Jackson. 
November 5. Difficulty between William Frasier 



and Charles McKinney in Volcano, in which the 

latter person was fatally stabbed. 
November 21. The residence of Mr. Clark, Plymouth, 

consumed by fire with all its contents. 
November 23. Dr. Charles Boarman died of small- 



Small-pox prevailed extensively in Jack- 



pox. 
December. 

son. 
Extraordinary meeting of the Board of Supervisors 

to consider the situation. Pest-house erected. 






Patrons Directory. 



TOWNSHIP NO 1, AMADOR COUNTY. 



NAME. 



Came to 
State 



Came to 
County. 



POST OFFICE. 



No. 
Acr**a. 



Aitken, Robert 

Andrews, K 

Anita, Andrea 

Arata, Nicholas I' 

Askey, A 

Avise, James 

Bartlett, S. H 

Boarman, Charles, M. D. 

Boyd, James 

Brown, A. C 

Brown, C. Y 

Brown, J. Ward 

Brown, Jasper 

Caminetti, A 

Conlon, Thomas 

Cox, John H 

Devoto, Antone 

Dewitt, Isaac N 

Dick, John R 

Eagon, John A 

Evans, Ellis 

Fonteurose, L. J 

Freeman, E. G 

Froelich, G 

Froolich, Rosa 

Fullen, George 

Fallen, John 

Gardner, Eli T 

Gordon, Marion W. Sr . . 

Heniing, D 

Hoffman, Frank 

Horton, William J 

Hutching, John W 

Kay, Wallace 

Keeney, L. G 

Kent, Mrs. C. S. G 

Little, M. J 

Love, Thomas 

Loveridge, H. L 

McKay, Danitd 

McKinney, Abraham. . . . 

Meelian, J 

Meek, CM 

Moore, (ieorge 

Myers, O-car 

Nichols, J. B 

1'enry, William M 

Phelps, T. J 

Pitt, William 

Reaves, John E 

Rees, H 

Richardson, L. C 

Richtmyer, B. F 

Schacht, B. H 

Simmons, Thomas H. . . . 

Spagnoli, D. B 

Spaguoli, S. G 

Turner, C. Helmer 

Yandament, Eli P 

Yandament, W. B 

Vogan, John 

Webb, Richard 

Wiley, William 



Jackson 

Township No. 1. . 

Clinton 

Clinton 

Jackson 

Township No. 1 . . 
Township No. 1 . . 

Jackson 

AmadorCaual Resv'r 

Jackson 

Jackson 

Butte City 

New York Ranch. . . 

Jackson 

Jackson 

Township No. 1 . . . . 

Jackson Gate 

Murphy's Ridge. . . . 
Township No. 1 . . . . 

Jackson 

Jackson 

Jackson 

Jackson 

Township No. 1 . . . . 

Jackson.. . 

Township No. 1 . . . . 
Township No. 1 . . . . 
Clinton District. . . . 

Jackson 

Towhship No. 1 . . . . 

Jackson 

Camp Opera District 

Clinton 

Jackson 

Township No. 1 . . . . 

Jackson 

Jackson 

Jackson 

Butte City 

Township No. ] . . . . 

ackson 

Jackson 

Jackson 

Jackson 

Township No. 1 . . . . 
Township No. 1 . . . . 

Jackson 

Jackson 

Township No. 1. . . . 
Township No. 1 . . . . 

Sutter Creek 

Township No. 1 . . . . 

•Jackson 

Jackson 

Sutter Creek 

Jackson 

Clinton 

Jackson 

Township No. 1 . . . . 
Township No. 1 . . . . 

J ackson 

Jackson 

Town snip No. 1, . . . 



Butcher 

Farmer 

Farmer 

Vineyard & mining . 

National Hotel 

Farmer and miner . . 

Farmer 

Physician & Surgeon 

Superintendent 

Attorney-at-Law . . . 
Physician & Surgeon 

Mining. 

Farmer 

District Attorney. . . 

Under Sheriff 

Amador Canal tend'r 

Farmer 

Miner 

Farmer 

Attorney-at-Law . 
National Hotel. . . 
County Clerk .... 
Saddlery and harness 

Farmer 

Retired 

Farmer 

Farmer 

Farming & teaming. 
Attorney-at-Law . . . 

Farmer 

Livery and ranching. 

Wood Ranch 

Miner 

Variety Store 

Farmer 



Farmer & orchardist. 

Liquor dealer 

Ditch Agent 

Farmer and miner 
Merchant and miner 
Co. Treas'r & miner 

Postmaster 

Lawyer 

Farmer 

Mining 

Ed. AmodorDispatch 
Attorney -at- iiaw . 

Farmer 

Foreman Oneida mill 
Forem'n Oneida mine 
Forem'n Oneida mine 



t. 

Ditch Agent 

Attorney-at-Law . . . 
Merchant and miner 
Deputy Clerk .... 
Farmer and miner. 
Farmer and miner 

Sheriff 

Publisher 

Farmer 



Scotland 

England 

Italy.. 

California 

Pennsylvania 

New Jersey 

Massachusetts 

Virginia 

Canada 

Missouri 

Amador County, Cal 

New York 

California 

Amador County, Cal 

Ireland 

British America. . . . 

Italy 

Ohio 

Ohio 

Virginia 

Pennsylvania 

Pennsylvania 

New York 

Germany 

Germany 

Ireland 

Ireland 

Ohio 

Tennessee 

Ohio 

Germany 

Kentucky 

Maine 

Massachusetts 

Pennsylvania 

Illinois 

Maine 

Ireland 

New York 

New Brunswick. . . . 

New Jersey 

Ireland 

Missouri 

Kentucky 

California 

Wisconsin 

Mississippi 

Kentucky 

Connecticut 

Tennessee- 

Wales 

Maine 

New York 

Prussia 

Wisconsin 

Italy 

Italy 

Michigan 

Ohio 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

England 

Maine 



1850 
1856 
1853 



1850 
1S52 
1852 
1849 
1876 
1851 
1855 
1853 



1854 
1857 
1869 
1866 
1852 
1851 
1849 
1858 
1852 
1853 
1847 
1860 
1852 
1850 
1850 
1852 
1850 
1854 
1853 
1869 
1852 
1851 
1850 
1850 
1851 
1852 
1853 
1850 
1852 
1877 



1859 
1857 
1849 
1850 
1850 
1853 
1854 
1850 
1869 
1852 
1854 
1854 
1852 
1855 
1855 
1849 
1871 
1849 



1858 
1856 
1S53 



1850 
1864 
1853 
1858 
1876 
1851 
1855 
1856 



1854 
1868 
1872 
1875 
1852 
1851 
1849 
1859 
1852 
J 853 
1854 
1860 
1852 
1864 
1850 
1853 
1852 
1854 
1853 
1869 
1861 
1851 
1854 
1850 
1851 
1868 
1853 
1854 
1854 
1879 



1859 
1864 
1S52 
1850 
1851 
1853 
1868 
1850 
1877 
1873 
1854 
1S54 
1856 
1855 
1855 
1852 
1875 
1849 



Jackson .... 
Jackson. . . . 
Pine Grove. 
Pine Grove. 
Jackson. . . . 
Jackson. . . . 
Jackson. . . . 
Jackson. . . . 

Sutter 

Jackson. . . . 
Jackson. . . . 
Jackson. . . . 
Jackson. . . . 
Jackson. . . . 
Jackson. . . . 
Pine Grove. 
Jackson. . . . 
Jackson. . 
Jackson. . . . 
Jackson. . . . 
Jackson. . . . 
Jackson. . . 
Jackson. . . . 
Jackson. . . . 
Jackson. . . . 
Jackson. . . . 
Jackson. . . . 
Pine Grove. 
Jackson. . . . 
Jackson. . . . 
Jackson. . . 
Lancha Pl'a 
Jackson. . . 
Jackson. . . 
Jackson. . . 
Jackson. . . 
Jackson. . . 
Jackson. . . 
Jackson. . . 
Jackson. . . 
Jackson. . . 
Jackson. . . 
Jackson. . . 
Jackson. . . 
Jackson. . 
.Jackson. . . 
Jackson. . . 
Jackson. . . 
Jackson. . . 
SutterCreek 
SutterCreek 
SutterCreek 
Jackson. . . . 
Jackson. . . . 
SutterCreek 
Jackson. . . . 
Jackson. . . . 
J ackson. . . . 
Pine Grove. 
Pine Grove. 
Jackson. . . . 
Jackson. . . 
Pine Grove. 



160 
320 



160 

40 

160 



320 

80 

320 



100 



480 



160 
160 
160 

8 
480 
160 
160 

1 



140 



120 



5 

120 

20 

50 

20 



160 
320 



160 



400 
300 



170 

i2o6 

640 



•Wells, Fargo & Co.'s agent, telegraph operator, and proprietor of Jackson Water- works. +Druggist, Coroner and Public Admsfr 



PATRONS DIRECTORY. 



341 



TOWNSHIP NO. 2, AMADOR OOUNTY. 



NAME. 



RESIDENCE. 



Came to 
State. 



Came to 
County. 



POST OFFICE. 



No. 
Acres. 



Amick, A. J 

Amick, J. S 

Bumest, Charles . . . 
Barnett, Susanna. . 

Bishop, Edgar 

Black, Charles S. . . 

Blyther, J. C 

Brusie, L 

Burris William 

Button, , 

Clark, J. S 

Coombs, W. S.... 

Corneal, A 

Crail, W 

Dillian, H 

Dunlap, G. H 

Earle, S. B 

Farnsworth, J. . . . 
Fischer, Bernhard. 

Ford, H. W 

Frates, Frank. . . . 



Frates, J. C. . % 

Goodding, J. A. 

Gregory, I. B. . 

Gregory, U. S 

Heffron, M 

Hall, H. F 

Hamrick, George K. . . . 

Horton, J. Q 

Johnson, A. H 

Jones, W. C 

Kidd, Stephen 

Kientz, Christian 

Kingsley, M. R 

Le Clair, Joseph 

Leininger, F 

Ludgate, Mrs. Mary H. 

Marchant, J 

Maroon, W. Q 

Martin, Mrs. George . . . 

Martin, J. P 

McDonald, A. B 

McDonald, Silas 

Moffett, James Albert. . 

Moore, James 

Murray, Matthew 

Northup, John 

Palmer, J. W. D 

Phillips, George W . . . . 

Prichard, F. M..: 

Prouty, W. H 

Rhodes, Jessie 

Richey, J. H 

Ringer, J. H 

Ronna Hans 

Sheakley, Alex ........ 

Sibole, I. W 

Smith, FredP 

Spooner, G. A 

Stevens, T. M 

Strong, C. B 

Surface, John W 

Swift, C. B 

Umstead, Isaac L 

Van Sandt, A. A 

Violett, J. VV 

Vivian, R. T 

Waddell, Isaac 

Waters, H. H 

Westfall, John C. . .. 

Whitlatch, D. H 

Whittle, J. C 

Winship, F. H 

Woolsey, Goe 



Dry Creek , 

Dry Creek , 

Township No. 2. . , 

French Camp 

lone City 

Buena Vista 

Mokelumne River. 

lone City 

lone Valley 

lone City 

Lancha Plana .... 

lone City 

lone City 

Lancha Plana. . . 
Jackson Creek 

lone Valley 

lone City 

lone Valley ... 

Forest Home 

Buena Vista 

lone Valley 



lone City 

Put's Bar 

Jackson Valley . . . 

lone 

lone Valley 

lone City 

lone City 

Township No. 2. . 
Michigan Bar. . . . 
lone Township. . . 

Jackson Valley 

Mokelumne River. . 

lone 

Buena Vista 

Jackson Valley 

lone City 

lone 

Lancha Plana 

Jackson Valley 

Sutter creek 

lone Valley 

lone Valley 

lone Valley 

French Camp 

Lancha Plana 

Julien District 

Lancha Plana. . . '. . 

Irish Hill 

Buena Vista 

Jackson Valley 

Buckeye Valley. . . . 

Buena Vista 

Buena Vista 

Forest Home 

lone 

Mt. Echo 

lone City 

lone City 

Jackson Creek 

lone 

lone City 

lone City 

Sutter creek 

Mokelumne River.. 

lone Valley 

Lancha Plana 

Lancha Plana 

Boston Ranch 

Township No. 2. . . . 

tone City 

Willow Creek 

lone City 

lone 



Farmer 

Farmer 

Merchant & farmer 

Stock raiser 

Gen. Merchandise . 

Farming 

Farm'r & fruit gr'w'r 
Physician & druggist 

Farming 

Teaming 

Teacher 

Carpenter 

Miner 

Blacksmith .... 

Farming 

Drayman 

Laborer 

Farming. 

Wine grower. . . 

Teaching 

Mangr of lone Grant 
& lone coal & ir'n Co 

Engineer 

Ranche r 

Farming 

Sawyer 

Farming 

Miller 

Carpenter 

Farmer 

Teaming 

Hotel 

Farming & mining . . 
Farm'r & fruit gr'w'r 

Hotel 

Blacksmith . . . 
Farming 



North Carolina. 
Dry Creek, Cal. 

Germany 

Pennsylvania . . 

New York 

Ohio 

Maine 

Connecticut . . . 

California 

New York 

California 

Pennsylvania. . 

Kentucky 

Ohio 

Iowa 

Wisconsin 

Massachussetts . 

Ohio 

Germany 

Kentucky 

Azores 



Butchering ... 

Fruit grower 

Farming 

Farmer & stock rais'r 
Farmer & orchardist 
Farming and mining 
Express messenger 
Farm'r & stock rais'r 
Mining & ditching . . 

Fruit grower 

Merchant 

Ditch agent 

Store keeper 

Farmer 

Teaming & farming . 
Ranching & thrash 'g 

Farming 

Saloon 

Farmer 

Farmer 

Hotel 

Painter 

Farm'r & stock rais'r 

Undertaker 

Livery, notary public 
Justice of the Peace 

Blacksmith 

Farm'r & fruit rais'r 

Farmer 

Ditching 

Mining & clerking. . 
Farm'r & stock rais'r 

Farmer 

Miner 

Farm'r & stock rais'r 

Lawyer 

Merchant 



Portugal 

Missouri 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Ireland 

Connecticut 

Kentucky 

Kentucky 

Maine 

Missouri 

England 

Germany 

Illinois 

Canada 

lone, Cal 

Indiana 

England 

Ohio 

New York 

Virginia 

New York 

New York 

California 

Ireland 

Ireland 

New York 

Vermont 

Kentucky 

New York 

Ohio 

Missouri 

New York . 

Missouri 

Holstein, Germany 

Pennsylvania 

Virginia 

New York 

Massachussetts. . . . 

Maine 

Vermont 

Missouri 

New York 

Pennsylvania 

Ohio 

Kentucky 

England 

Maryland 

Ireland 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Canada 

Maine 

New Jersey 



1849 
1855 
1852 
1858 
1861 
1856 
1S50 
1850 
1852 
1852 
1856 
1850 
1853 
1852 
1854 
1870 
1867 
1854 
1858 
1863 
1852 

1874 
1854 
1853 
1868 
1852 
1852 
1863 
1853 
1868 
1852 
1852 
1830 
1853 
1878 
1857 
1869 
1858 
1853 
1849 
1847 
1862 
1855 
1852 
1854 
1855 
1852 
1849 
1852 
1856 
1852 
1852 
1854 
1852 
1852 
1852 
1865 
1849 
1857 
1853 
1853 
1852 
1849 
1873 
1852 
1850 
1856 
1850 
1849 
1854 
1851 
1850 
1868 
1856 



1850 
1855 
1858 
1858 
1861 
1856 
1857 
1850 
1852 
1852 
1874 
1852 
1853 
1855 
1854 
1875 
1867 
1855 
1858 
1864 
1876 

1876 
1857 
1853 
1868 
1853 
1855 
1863 
1858 
1878 
1857 
1852 
1858 
1853 
1878 
1857 
1869 
185S 
1858 
1849 
1848 
1862 
1858 
1852 
1854 
1858 
1852 
1849 
1878 
1856 
1852 
1865 
1859 
1852 
1870 
1853 
1865 
1850 
185S 
1866 
1860 
1852 
1855 
1873 
1853 
1851 
1857 
1S54 
1849 
1854 
1863 
1850 
1868 
1858 



lone City 

lone City 

Lancha Plana . 
Lancha Plana . 

lone City 

lone 

Camanche 

lone 

lone City 

lone 

lone City 

lone 

lone City 

Lancha Plana. 

lone 

lone 

lone 

lone 

Forest Home. . 

lone 

lone Valley . . . 



lone City 

Lancha Plana . 

lone 

lone 

lone 

lone r . . 

lone 

Jackson 

Michigan Bar. 

lone 

lone 

Lancha Plana. 

lone 

lone 

lone 

lone 

lone 

Lancha Plana . 

lone 

lone 

lone 

lone 

lone City 

Lancha Plana . 
Lancha Plana . 
Lancha Plana . 
Lancha Plana . 

lone 

lone 

lone 

lone City 

lone 

lone 

Forest Home . . 

lone 

lone 

lone Valley. . . 

lone 

lone 

lone 

lone Valley. . . 

lone City 

lone 

Camanche 

lone City 

Lancha Plana . 
Lancha Plana . 

lone 

Jackson 

lone Valley. . . 

lone 

lone 

lone 



718 
160 
840 
360 



46 
200 



144 



160 



150 

60 

20 

33000 



250 
320 



106J 



480 



160 
340 
145 



130 



35 

172 

300 

1000 

30 

30 



320 

300 

80 



10 

350 
240 
340 
431 



184 
160 



3000 



600 
107 



80 
240 
320 



1000 
240 






UlsTuKY OF AM \Im»|; i'oUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



TOWNSHIP NO. 3, AMADOR COUNTY. 



s \mi:. 



RESIDENCE. 



Adams, I!. .1 

Ames, Serena 

Boardman, 8. r>. . . . 

Iston, D. s 

("lev eland, I''. .1 . . . . 

Clough, A. P 

Foley, .1. M 

Poster, John A. . . . 
Foster, Margaret.. . . 

( Goodrich, C. B 

Mall, .lames 

Bam, A. C 

Harker, .1. P 

Sinkson, J. M 

Sinkson, Richard S 
Jerome, Alex 

Julias, P 

klainann, John. . . . 

Lesslej . James 

Mace, F 

Marian, ( 'has. M. . . . 

Mattice, S 

Miller, L 

Peek, Palmer N 

Petty, A 

Petty, MissE 

Petty, Solomon. 

Rank, J. B 

Ross, Benjamin 

Shealor, James W. . 
Southard, L. W. . . . 
Stewart. Robert. . . 

Stolcken, J. D 

Tarr, Warren F. . . . 
Toop, George W. . . . 

Wheeler, J. T 

Whitaker, Jacob.. . . 
Whitehead, W. H... 
Whiting, Samuel L. 
Whitmore, F. M. . . . 

Whitney, I. W 

William's. N. C 

Wise, E 

Zeras, Catherine. . . 



Aqueduct City 

Pine < Irove 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano., 

Pine Grove 

Shake Ridge 

Township No. 3. . . . 

Shake Ridge 

Volcano 

Township No. 3. . . 

Aqueduct City 

I [arkers Ranch . . . 

Volcano, 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Pine Grove 

Township No. 3. . . . 

Pioneer 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Shake Ridge 

Pioneer 

Volcano 

Pioneer Creeks. 

Tarr's Mills 

Pioneer City 

Pine Grove 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Williams Station . . . 
Wise Toll Road. . . . 
Volcano . .' 



Lumberman . 



Miner and farmer . 

Druggist 

Volcano v ater-wr'ks 

Fruit grower 

Ranching & mining 

Farmer 

Public House, Ranch 
Blacksmith 

Miner 

Hotel and mining . . 
Farming & timber'ng 

Livery 

Livery 

Ranching 

Hotel 

Miner 

Ranching & teaming 
Lumber & quartz mill 

Laborer 

Mining 

School supt &teach'r 
Mining & farming . . 

Hotel 

Housekeeper 

Inventor 

Milling and mining 
County Surveyor. . . 
Milling & ranching . 



Came to 
State. 



Came to 

i 'uuiity. 



POST OFFICE. 



No. 

Acres. 



i lanada 



Mining 

Miner 

Alilling 

Mining 

Merchant and miner 

Quartz miner 

Carpenter & miner 
Carp'r & millwright 

Lumberman 

Mining 

Hotel and ranch. . . 
Ranching 



Pine ( I rove, Cal. 

Indiana 

Ohio 

New fork 

New York 

Kentucky 

\ew Hamphire . 

Illinois 

Maine 

Pennsylvania . . . 

Kentucky 

Salt Lake, Utah. 

Missouri 

Missouri 

New York 

Germany 

Germany 

Missouri 

Maine 

New York 

Canada 

Alabama 

New York. . 

Ohio 

Kentucky 

Missouri 

Ohio 

Portland, Maine . 

Virginia 

Missouri 

Ireland 

Germany 

Maine 

California 

New Hamphire. . 

Switzerland 

;Ohio 

Massachusetts. . . 
Massachusetts . . 

New York 

Maine 

Pennsylvania . . . 
Missouri 



1868 
1806 
1853 

1850 
1851 

1855 
1854 
1849 
1852 
1859 
1850 
1855 
1850 
1849 
1849 
1852 
1853 
1873 
1854 
1851 
1850 
1850 
1S51 
1853 
1852 
1873 
1853 
1849 
1849 
1853 
1856 
1850 
1870 
1859 
1856 
1849 
1850 
1852 
1851 
1850 
1850 
1855 
1850 



1873 
1806 
1853 
1 850 
1854 
1 855 
I 855 
1854 
1852 
1859 
1850 
1855 
1855 
1849 
1849 
1852 
1859 
1873 
1854 
1851 
1880 
1856 
1S75 
1858 
1852 
1873 
1853 
1879 
1852 
1863 
1873 
1850 
1870 
1859 
1856 
1849 
1858 
1852 
1854 
1850 
1854 
1855 
1852 
1860 



Pine Grove. . . 
Pine Orove. . . 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Pine Orove.. . 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Pine Grove. . . 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Pine Grove. . . 
Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano 

Pine Grove. . . 

Volcano 

Volcano . . . . . 
Volcano 

Volcano 

Volcano ... . 

Volcano 

Sutter Creek. 
Volcano 



30 



27 
130 
140 
320 
260 



40 
500 
160 



160 



240 



6 

8 

320 



160 



320 
20 
40 



480 



164 
160 



TOWNSHIP NO. 4, AMADOR COUNTY. 



NAME. 



Came to Came to 
State. County. 



POST OFFICE. 



No. 
Acres. 



Allen, George 

Bermingham, Rev. P. 
Breedlove, W. N. . . . 

Brinn, Morris 

Brown, Jno. A 

Cooledge, W. S 



Culbert, Thos. L. 
Davies, D. T 



Deacon, Hiram. 



DeCarolis.R.. 
Downs, R. C... 
Dudley, A. K. 



Dunlap, A 

Ellis, R 

Fagan, Peter 

Furnanzo, Luigi... 

Gabbs, E S 

Harrington, A. W. 

Herman F 

Hewitt, O. C 

Howard F. A , 

Keeney, W. F 

Kerr, Thomas. 

Kling, G. W 

Lepley, Isaac 



Sutter Creek Lumber & ranching. 

Sutter Creek Catholic pastor 

Sutter Creek Saloon 

Sutter Creek [Merchant 

Sutter Creek County Surveyor. . . 

Sutter Creek |Supt Amador Canal 

and Mining Co. 



Amador City 
Sutter Creek. 

Sutter Creek. 

Sutter Creek. 
Sutter Creek . 
Sutter Creek . 



Amador 

Township No. 4. 
Sutter Creek 
Township No. 4. 
Sutter Creek 

Amador 

Sutter Creek 
Amador City 
Sutter Creek 

Amador 

Amador 

Amador 

Amador City. . . . 



Farmer 

Supt Con. Amador 
mines. 

Amalgamat'r Eureka 
mill. 

Catholic pastor 

Supt. Down's mine. . 

Prop. American Ex- 
change Hotel. 

Druggist 

Farmer 

Livery 

Farmer 

Dentist 

Prop. Amador House 

Blacksmith 

Supt. Keystone mine 

Real estate 

Prop. Amador House 

Livery. 

Mining 

Builder 



New York .... 

Ireland 

Virginia 

Germany 

Missouri 

New Hampshire 

Missouri 

England. 

England 

Italy 

Connecticut . . . 
Maine 

Ohio 

New York .... 

Canada 

Italy 

England 

Massachusetts. . 
Pennsylvania . . 

Virginia 

Massachusetts. . 
Pennsylvania . . 
Pennsylvania . . 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania . . 



1860 
1855 
1852 
1855 
1850 
1849 

1854 
1862 

1858 

1878 
1849 
1859 

1860 
1849 
1858 
1861 
1853 
1852 
1854 
1861 
1850 
1855 
1860 
1853 
1864 



1860 
1879 
1862 
1855 
1851 
1851 

1854 
1862 

1858 

1878 
1849 
1860 

1860 
1849 
185S 
1864 
1S76 
1S53 
1854 
1S70 
1852 
1863 
1860 
1S53 
1864 



Sutter Creek 
Sutter Creek 
Sutter Creek 
Sutter Creek 

Jackson 

Sutter Creek 



Amador City 
Sutter Creek 

Sutter Creek 

Sutter Creek 
Suiter Creek 
Sutter Creek 



Amador 

Amador City 
Sutter Creek 
Amador City 
Sutter Creek 

Amador 

Sutter Creek 
Amador City 
Sutter Creek 

Amador 

Amador 

Amador 

Amador City 



2700 



800 



320 



80 
140 
240 



PATRONS DIRECTORY. 



343 



TOWNSHIP NO. 4, AMADOR COUNTY — Continued. 



NAME. 



Martin, O. E 

Mavon. T. H 

Mclntire, E. B 

Mooney, M. G . . 
Nickerson, C. J. . . . 

Palmer, John 

Palmer, Wilmer . . 
Parks, J. F ■., 

Peterson Arthur N 

Porter, J. S 

Post, J. M., 

Randolph, I. N. . . 

Sanderson, John . . 
Stewart, S. D. R. . 

Stone, John T. . . . 
Taylor, B. F 

Taylor, L. J 

Templeton, I. -N . . 

Thompson, A. E . . 

Towns, H. H 

Tregloan, J. R. . . . 

Voorhies, E. C 



Amador 

Amador 

Sutter Creek . 

Amador 

Sutter Creek . 

Bunker Hill.. 



Sutter Creek . 
Amador City . 



Sutter Creek. 



Sutter Creek. . . . 
Township No. 4. 
Sutter Creek 



Township No. 4. 
Sutter Creek 



Sutter Creek. 
Sutter Creek . 

Bunker Hill . 

Amador City . 



Bunker Hill... 

Sutter Creek . . 
Amador City . 
Suttter Creek. 



Lumber 

Physician & Surgeon 

Mining 

Saloon 

Supt. Sutter Creek 

sulphuret works. 
Supt. Bunker Hill 

mine. 

Millwright 

Foreman Keystone 

mine. 
Foreman Lincoln 

mill. 
Justice of the Peace 

Farmer 

Insurance and collec 

tion agent. 

Farmer 

Supt. Lincoln and 

Mahony miues. 

Miner 

Foreman Amador 

mine. 

Farmer 

Foreman Keystone 

mill. 
Engine'r Bunker Hill 

mine. 

Gen. mangr. Amador 

Canal & Mining Co 

Supt. Spring Hill 

mine. 
Supt. Amador Re 

duction Works. 



Maine 

Kentucky 

New Hampshire. . . . 

Ireland 

Massachusetts 

Maine 



New York 
Missouri . . , 



Scotland 

Connnecticut 

New Brunswick 
Maryland 



Ireland .... 
New York . 



Vermont 
Ohio 



Ohio 

New York 



New York 

New Hampshire. 

Wisconsin 

Michigan 



Came to 
State. 


Came to 
County. 


1873 
1854 
1849 
18(32 
1856 


1873 
1865 
1850 
1862 
1856 


1858 


1858 


1853 
1S55 


1S57 
1S73 


1857 


1857 


1849 
1855 
1846 


1859 
1855 
1853 


1862 

1S52 


1862 

1872 


186S 
1859 


1868 
1859 


1859 
1S60 


1859 
1860 


1875 


1875 


1874 


1874 


1855 


1872 


1877 


1877 



POST OFFICE. 



Amador 

Amador 

Sutter Creek 

Amador 

Sutter Creek 



Amador City . 



Sutter Creek 
Amador City 

Sutter Creek 

Sutter Creek 
Sutter Creek 
Sutter Creek 

Sutter Creek 
Sutter Creek 

Sutter Creek 
Sutter Creek 

Amador City 
Amador City 

Amador City 

Sutter Creek 

Amador City 

Sutter Creek 



No. 

Acres. 



320 
160 



80 
160 



160 



TOWNSHIP NO. 5, AMADOR COUNTY. 



NAME. 


RESIDENCE. 


BUSINESS. NATIVITY. 


Came to 
State. 


Came to 
County. 


POST OFFICE. 


No. 
Acres. 


Ball, Reuben 


Forest Home Dis't . . 
Willow Springs .... 
Finn's Ranch 

Township No. 5 . . . . 
Township No. 5 


Ditch tender & ranch 
Ranch & stock raiser 


Indiana 


1853 
1851 


1853 
1867 


Forest Home . . 
Forest Home . . 


120 


Bickford A 


New Hampshire. . . . 


320 


Cook, H 




FinD, Catherine 


Farm'g, public house 

and wine grower . . 

Farmer 


Canada . 


1S53 

1853 
1849 


1853 

1853 
1S49 


Amador City . . 


260 


Ford, R. M 


Pennsylvania 


280 


Worley, Dan 


Farmer and miner. . 


160 











TOWNSHIP NO. 6, AMADOR COUNTY. 



NAME. 



RESIDENCE. 



Came to 
State. 



Came to 
County. 



POST OFFICE. 



No. 

Acres. 



Aniya, M 

Baird, Jefferson. . 

Ball, O 

Barney, E. S 

Bawden, T. P... 

Brace, M. T 

Briggs, Eb. M 

Burner, James. . . 

Burt, James 

Carraro, Joseph . 
Church, M. B. . . . 
Clark, G. W. 
Clark, W. O. . . . 
Clemens, John. . . 
Clough, F. W. . . 

Coover, Wm 

Croff, J. W 

Dabovich, Andre 
Davis, Jonah. . . . 
Davis, Thompson 
Dingle, James . . . 
Easton, G. W. . . 



Drytown 

Plymouth 

Shenandoah Valley . 

Drytown 

Plymouth 



Plymouth 
Plymouth 
Plymouth 
Oleta .... 
Plymouth 
Drytown . 

Oleta 

Drytown . 
Plymouth 
Plymouth 
Plymouth 

Oleta 

Plymouth 
Plymouth 
Plymouth 
Plymouth 
Plymouth 



Saloon-keeper 

Farming 

Farmer and miner. . 
Mill superintendent. 
Mill foreman Empire 

mine. 
Liquors, cigars, etc. . 
Buddler Empire mill 
Teami'g& butcher'ng 
General business. . . . 

Miner 

Justice of the Peace 
Farming and mining 

Farmer 

Miner 

Hoisting engineer . . . 
Teaming & ranching 
Farmer and miner. . 

Miner 

Miner 

Livery stable 

Mining 

Engine'r Empire mill 



Italy. 



Pennsylvania 

Indiana 

New York . . . 
Illinois 



Indiana 

Missouri 

Virginia 

Vermont 

Italy 

Connecticut . . . 

Kentucky 

Indiana 

England 

Amador Co. Cal 

Ohio 

New York 

Austria 

Wales 

Illinois 

England 

Wisconsin 



1S70 


1870 


1850 


1873 


1854 


1857 


1849 


1873 


.1872 


1872 


1852 


1869 


1849 


1853 


1865 


1866 


1849 


1851 


1862 


1862 


1849 


1850 


1S50 


1860 


1850 


1850 


1866 


1879 


1S53 


1S53 


1868 


1878 


1851 


1853 


1864 


1878 


1877 


1877 


1853 


1S54 


1869 


1869 


1856 


1873 



Drytown 

Plymouth 

Plym'uth&Oleta 

Drytown 

Plymouth 



Plymouth . . 
Plymouth . . 
Plymouth . . 

Oleta 

Plymouth . . 
Drytown . . 

Oleta 

Drytown . , 
Plymouth . , 
Plymouth . 
Plymouth . , 

Oleta 

Plymouth . , 
Plymouth . , 
Plymouth . . 
Plymouth . . 
Plymouth . . 



320 
320 



160 



25 

SC 
200 



120 
120 






HISTORY OF \ MAI >< »i: COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



TOWNSHIP NO. 6. AMADOR COUNTY— Continued. 






HUt«. 



Count} 1 



TOST OFHIK. 



>. John 

I'. null. mi. II C 

i.iliii.m, John. 

Oilman . i: \l 

Qoff, l> M 

■ l 

! I. . . . . 
\ 

Uanka, Lonii 

Ilmk-. ii. N ' 

llnliii.Hi, i. II 

[nakeep, Bar A 
Jennings, I ■ I 

\\ I 

Kephart, < ; .■■ tl;<* 

-. William 

Lawson, 1* 

LeMoin, Geo, w. 

Miller. J. H 

Mitrovich, Michael.. . 

Morris, James 

Mudge, ffm. Hodge 

Mi' hail 

Perry, Jno. W 

ivttitt, I. E 

Potter, K. s 

Puriuton, C A 

Russell, T. N 

Sal lit-, Jonathan .... 

Schairer, Fred 

Thoms, F. H 

Townseml Mrs. E 

Vanderpool, Corrinne, 

Venn, Charles 

Vi-nii, Wo 

Votaw, C. J 

Welle, Matthew H.. , 
Wheeler, Stephen C. . 

Whitaere, 1. W 

Whitney, N. P 

Williams, Benjamin C 

Williams, ,1. (' 

Wilson, A 

Woolford, Joseph. 
Yates, E. It 



Plymonth (diner 

Milling and ran 

Plymouth Moson Empire mini 

Plymonth . . . \b chanio 

I'h nth Mill in ... lniii-t 

Oleta 

I'l> month 

<ut h .... 
Plymonth 

I'h month 



Fori in M Empire mill 



i ■ uning 

Blaokamith Empire 
mill. 

Plymouth Livery stable .... 

Plymouth Ranching ft Teaming 

Plj mouth I' n iiiiiil' 

■ii .... Book-keeper 

Plymonth Foreman 



Wales 

Mew York. . . . 
Sweden 

M..1IM , 

Pennsj Ivania . . 
Pennsylvania . 

Ohio.' 

Plymonth, < !a1 
Plymouth, Oal. 
Bavaria 



Lawyer 
Bucket-lander 
Painter and general 
workman. 

Blacksmith 



Plymonth 
Plymouth 
Plymouth 

Drytown . 

Drytown Blacksmith 

Plymouth Miner 

Plymouth Fireman . . . 

Plymouth Miner . ... 

Plymouth Miner 

Plymonth JMining. . . . 

Plymouth [Farmer. . . . 

Plymonth Ranch'ngand lumber 

merchant. 

Oleta 'Ditch owner 

Drytown 'Mining 

Plymouth Farmer 

Plymouth 'Farmer 

Plymouth Salesman . . . 

Oleta 'Public house 



Missouri .... 

Indiana 

Virginia .... 
( alifornia . . . 

Wales 

Pennsylvania 

Canada 

Denmark .... 



Drytown, ( al. 

Missouri 

Austria 

Utah 

England . . . . . 

Austria 

New York 

Ohio 

Connecticut. . . 



Plymouth 

Plymouth 

Plymouth 

Williams District . . 

Central House 

Plymouth 

Whitaere Branch . . 

Plymouth 

Williams District . 

Drytown 

Shenandoah Valley. 

Plymouth 

Oleta 



School teaching 

Miner 

Miner 

Banching & teaming 

Farming 

Farmer 

Banching 

Mining 

Farming and teaming 

Merchant 

Farmer 

Blacksmith 

Farmer 



Maine 

England 

Missouri 

Bavaria 

Michigan 

Illinois 

Iowa 

Wales 

Wales 

Missouri 

New York 

Indiana 

Pennsylvania . . . 
Boston, Mass. . . 

Mississippi 

New Hampshire. 

Wisconsin 

England 

Virginia 



I860 
I860 
1854 

1ST.-, 

I Soli 

1 853 
I860 
1866 

1855 
1 862 

1840 
1852 

1 85 1 



1807 
1850 
1861 
1849 

1857 
1849 
1868 
1852 
1866 
1870 
1873 
1854 
1852 

1850 
1866 
1871 
1853 
I860 
1852 
1873 
1873 
1873 
1852 
1849 
1852 
1853 
1852 
1853 
1849 
1850 
1862 
1849 



I 872 
1853 
1877 
1 880 
1 856 
1 853 
1870 
1 865 
1 865 
1854 

1840 

I Soli 

I860 



1867 

1 850 
1 870 

1 86 1 

1857 
1849 
1868 
) 852 
1873 
1876 
1873 
1854 
1852 

1855 
1867 
1871 
1853 
1862 
1852 
1873 
1875 
1875 
1877 
1852 
1852 
1858 
1877 
1853 
1850 
1850 
1862 
1850 



Plymouth 

Oleta 

Plymouth 
Plymouth 
Plymouth 

Oleta 

Plymouth 
Plymouth 
Plymouth 
Plymouth 

Plymouth 
Plymouth 
Plymouth 
Drytown . 
Plymouth 
Plymouth 
Plymouth 
Plymouth 



Drytown . 

Drytown . 

Plymouth 

Plymouth 

Plymouth 

Plymouth 

Plymouth 

Plymouth 

Plymouth 

Oleta 

Drytown . 
Plymouth 
Plymouth 
Plymouth 

Oleta 

Plymouth 
Plymouth 
Plymouth 
Plymouth 
Drytown . 
Plymouth 
Plymouth 
Plymouth 
Plymouth 
Drytown . 
Plymouth 
Plymouth 
Oleta 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Came to 
State. 



Came to 
County 



POST OFFICE. 



Duhem, C 

Gaffney, Thos 

Hill, Samuel 

Knox, Israel W 

Monsees, H. H 

Wirta, G. D 

Wrigglesworth, Joseph 



San Francisco Miner & machinist. 



Michigan Bar. . , 
Ventura County. , 

Oakland 

Coyote ville 



Gait 

Bridgeport District. 



Potter 

Stock raiser 

Foundry and mining 
Farming and fruit 
raising. 

Farming 

Ranching & teaming 



Paris 

New York . . . 

England 

Massachusetts 
Hanover 

Ohio 

New York . . . 



1852 
1875 
1850 
1852 
1857 

1859 
1S59 



1880 
1875 
1850 



1859 

1859 
1859 



San Francisco. . 
Michigan Bar . . 

Spring ville 

237 First st. S. F. 
Oleta 



Gait . 
Oleta. 



